Elmira Star-Gazette in New York assessing biz coverage

Executive Editor Bill Church of the Elmira Star-Gazette in New York says the newspaper is assessing how it delivers news given technology changes. Among the changes being discussed is how the newspaper delivers business news.

Church writes, “We’re also assessing the best way to present business news since stock listings now can be accessed online. The information that appears in print is from the prior afternoon, so it’s not timely. We’re working on ways to make business coverage more relevant, so send me an e-mail if you have constructive thoughts.”

I’m guessing from the wording above that the overhaul won’t just include cut stock listings but also a re-evaluation of the business news that is covered in the upstate New York paper. This gets to my main concern with cutting stock listings, and that is that upper management at most newspapers seem to think that the business section is a place where cuts can be made overall, not just in stock listings, because it’s the section that was most recently added to many newspapers.

Traditional newspaper management says cut back where you most recently added, not cut where the reader doesn’t care anymore. Business editors need to be showing their bosses statistics that show that more than half of all U.S. households now own stocks, up from 10 percent in 1970.