Charlotte Observer moves its MoneyWise section to Monday

The Charlotte Observer, another Knight-Ridder paper, has moved its MoneyWise section, which has run on Mondays, to Sunday, and made some other changes to its business coverage.

What was not explained by the newspaper today is whether there will be a business section on Monday, and since I haven’t seen Monday’s paper yet, I don’t know what they’re planning. But I do see that business columnist Doug Smith’s Question of the Week column is moving to Page A2, as well as Jeff Elder’s Inside This Week, a look at business happenings in the largest city in North Carolina. In addition, the paper says that page A2 will include business news from around the nation and the world, so I can only surmise that the Monday business section is being dropped. The Sunday mutual funds listings are being moved to the Saturday paper.

In addition, the paper is adding a blog to its Web site called Out of the Red written by reporter Amy Baldwin. It’s about money issues for 20-somethings and 30-somethings. I assume the blog will appear here, but it has yet to show up with the newspaper’s other blogs on the blog home page.

Editor Rick Thames describes the changes in his Sunday column here. But to actually see specifically how the paper’s business coverage is changing, you need to click on “Graphic/Visualize the Changes” at the top of his column.

Overall, I do not see this as good news for business coverage in Charlotte. I interpret it as less space for business stories.