How business journalism has changed in the past 30 years

Sougata Mukherjee, the editor of the Triangle Business Journal, writes about how business news is delivered differently as the American City Business Journals paper celebrates its 30th anniversary.

Mukherjee writes, “I remember the day in 1993 when I found out Mercedes-Benz was working with North Carolina economic development officials for a massive auto plant near Mebane. At stake – thousands of jobs, hundreds of millions of dollars in capital investment.

“At the same time I was chasing the story, my colleague in Charlotte, Robert Morris who was covering commercial real estate for the Charlotte Business Journal at that time, was talking to his sources for an independent confirmation. By Thursday morning, we had confirmation. On Friday, the Triangle Business Journal and the Charlotte Business Journal had a very big scoop – on our front pages.

“Morris and I talked that Friday morning and acknowledged that’s why we do journalism – we tell important stories to people. Today, Morris is the editor of our sister paper in Charlotte.

“More than 20 years ago, if we had a scoop or had to break a big story, we had one shot at it – our print edition that came out every Friday.

“As you know by now, things have drastically changed. We now report on news as it happens – we have our robust website that offers us that opportunity.”

Read more here and look at a slideshow of covers of the paper from the past 30 years.