How Fed coverage has increased since the crisis began

Michael Tomsic, a senior business journalism student at UNC-Chapel Hill, writes on the College Business Journalism Consortium site about how coverage of the Federal Reserve Board has changed in the past few years.

Tomsic writes, “The media spotlight shined on the Fed has intensified dramatically since the financial crisis that began in 2007.

“From 2004 to 2006, The Washington Post published 257 A-section articles that at least mentioned the Federal Reserve, according to washingtonpost.com’s advanced archive search. In 2008 alone, that number skyrocketed to 285 articles, and it’s gone up each year since.

“The New York Times’ coverage of the Fed has also shot up. It published 131 front-page articles that at least mentioned the Federal Reserve from 2004 to 2006, according to nytimes.com’s advanced archive search. Then in 2008, that number soared to 204 articles. It’s decreased since then but remains well above the yearly average before the crisis began.

“The Wall Street Journal and NPR do not have comparable advanced archive searches on their websites. But many business reporters and editors agree Fed coverage has increased throughout the industry since the crisis.”

Read more here.