Add the Indianapolis Star to the list of metropolitan newspapers that have cut stock listings since the beginning of the year. The Star cut its stock listings during the week by one page.
Editor Dennis Ryerson updated readers on the change in this morning’s newspaper: “As Assistant Managing Editor/Business Steve Berta explained in his note to readers, ‘The changes reflect the rising use of the Internet for this type of information. More readers have switched to checking prices on the Web throughout the day, reducing the demand for newspaper stock listings. We want to use our space for local news and information readers cannot get elsewhere.’
He added, “By day’s end Friday, more than 150 readers had called us about the change. The vast majority of them were taking advantage of our offer to add back to our list stocks of interest to them.”
Again, the issue when newspapers cut stock listings is what they’re doing with that extra space. Are they just cutting their newsprint usage, thereby reducing the news hole for stories? Or are they giving that space for editorial content? Most newspapers seem to be cutting news hole.
