Huntsville Times editor discusses reasons behind adding biz section

TALKING BIZ NEWS EXCLUSIVE

Kevin Wendt became the Huntsville Times editor in July 2008 after working as an assistant managing editor for the San Jose Mercury News.

Since that time, he’s been involved in an overhaul of the paper, including a redesign that was unveiled Tuesday and included a standalone business section — a first for the paper. The paper has a five-person business desk — a business editor and four reporters.

Wendt talked to Talking Biz News via e-mail about the new business section. What follows is an edited transcript.

What can you tell me about the decision?

Since arriving in July, I’ve shared the frustration of readers who care about business news that they could never find our business section. Furthermore, we had 12 columns of space for business (2 pages), but at least four columns of that was taken up with a stocks report. Couple that with the fact that Huntsville is a huge business community –- billions in contract work related to NASA and the Redstone Arsenal –- and there was a clear need to beef up our business reporting and space in the paper.

How many days a week will it be standalone?

The section will be standalone seven days a week. Generally it will be a six-page section, with editorial space on 1, 2, 3 and 6. Our legal classified ads will generally take up 4 and 5.

Has anything changed about the paper’s business coverage as a result?

We’ve more clearly defined themes for specific days of the week. For example, Wednesday is NASA/Defense, where we’ll build a main presence out of that topic area. One of the new themes is “The Business of Government.” Because government has such a big presence here, and so many companies are affiliated with it, this is a natural expansion, but is a new way of looking at “government” coverage. But even within government –- land deals, credit ratings, buildings -– these are business topics as well.

Any new features in the business section?

We’ve built a “Green Living” feature for inside where local experts in environmental issues write weekly (Saturdays). We’re also looking for new ways to build a more daily report from Redstone Arsenal, but that’s still in the works.