Dallas Morning News biz section sticks with its strengths

Paulina Blanc writes about the strategy of the Dallas Morning News business news desk for the American History of Business Journalism website.

Blanc writes, “In order to survive in the current digital revolution major news entities are pushing toward digital and diversity in their coverage, while the business desk of The Dallas Morning News is confidently doing neither.

“‘We don’t waste our energy on what wires can cover,’ said Pamela Yip, personal finance and senior/aging issues writer at the Morning News. ‘We focus our energies on what really matters to readers here.’

“Two-thirds of its 60-person staff has been cut since its peak in 2001, yet the business desk remains steadfast in its long-standing and overarching goal: to produce the most meaningful, hyper local and analytical coverage of businesses in Dallas.

“‘What we cover, we cover very well. We just don’t have as many people as we used to on each beat,’ said Terry Maxon, an airline and aviation reporter who has been at the Morning News for more than a quarter century. ‘So we have to keep re-prioritizing and rethinking how to best use our resources.’

“Dennis Fulton, the business editor at the Morning News, said the paper now uses part-time staff or freelancers to cover the beats that it no longer has full-time reporters on.”

Read more here.