Categories: OLD Media Moves

Cut stock listings don't result in more editorial space

A study released Tuesday by the Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism found that newspapers that cut printed stock listings have not used that extra space for more business news content.

In addition, the study by Arizona State University professor Stephen Doig found that virtually none of the 1,400 daily newspapers in the country publish a full stock listing anymore.

In addition, the study found:

— Seven of every eight business editors acknowledged getting “a lot of complaints” from readers about stock table cuts but varied considerably in how they responded to those complaints. Responses ranged from putting back stocks that had been cut from lists to directing readers to online sources for stock quotes.

— The average amount of space devoted by all papers to stock tables is slightly more than one-third of a page. Among the large papers, the average amount of space devoted to stock listings is a page and a half.

— About three-quarters of U.S. newspapers offer a page or less of business news, including the stock tables. Among big papers, two-thirds offer business sections of six or fewer pages, which often include at least one full-page ad.

— Business news is a common — but not guaranteed — element on the front page of the nation’s newspapers. About 40% of the national sample and 55% of the large-paper sample ran a business story of some kind on the front page of the day’s edition being studied in the content analysis.

Read more here.

Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.

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View Comments

Howard Owens says:
August 4, 2007 at 1:34 pm
And cutting stock tables was supposed to lead to more business news?
Gee, and here I thought the goal was to eliminate pages from the paper as a cost savings ... instead of laying off business reporters, reduce production costs.