Chattanooga business section focuses on local news

John Vass Jr., the business editor of the Chattannoga Times Free Press, notes that his daily business section likes to focus on local business news.

But there’s a nice mixture of stories on Tuesday’s front page, from a trend piece to a column to a national story.

Vass says, “Our emphasis is on local news and businesses that reach throughout our community, touching the lives of readers, consumers, etc. It’s a mandate that comes to us directly from Tom Griscom, our publisher and executive editor.

“Obviously this page reflects it with Krystal receiving primary attention. In Chattanooga, this longtime provider of the square little burger is always big news.

“But we do try to reach to the great heart of newspaper readers today — boomers, for example — and our generations coverage touches them, as reflected in the FirstBank story. Boomers are the ones who still like to come into banks to experience personal banking. Here is a bank entering the Chattanooga market with the goal of targeting boomers as customers through its new, specially designed branch.

“Our column by John Riddell reaches out to entrepreneurs and small businesses, providing them with helpful information.

“Finally, Chris, we provide extensive coverage of the big, national business news, as is shown by our wire story under the headline ‘Villains sought.’ The subject obviously deals with the mortgage crisis in our country and has breadth that grabs our readers as well.”

I was impressed that although Monday was a holiday and there were no stock listings, the paper had a standalone section, and all but one of the stories on the front page was written by a staff member.

A pdf where you can see the detail of the page can be found here.