Jacksonville readers upset at cut stock listings; paper cuts Monday biz section

Wayne Ezell, the reader representative at the Florida Times-Union in Jacksonville, Fla., writes Sunday that the reaction to the paper’s decision to cut printed stock and mutual fund listings was surprising.

Ezell also reports that the paper’s First Business section on Mondays will be eliminated and the content put in the Sunday business section.

Ezell writes, “Although some readers were aghast at the changes, the somewhat muted response may indicate how agile this community has become on the Internet. Most newspaper readers have computers, of course, and most with investments discovered years ago that richly dense information about stocks and mutual funds is easily accessible online.

“The vast majority of those who protested were older readers who do not use a computer and have no plans to do so. Some said they would buy The Wall Street Journal or visit the public library to track their investments.

“Amid all the change in the world, until last weekend William K. Russell, 93, could depend on checking stocks and mutual funds in this newspaper.

“‘Now you’ve really done it,’ said Russell, who may now reconsider whether he needs to be a subscriber. ‘I wouldn’t be leaving you; you left me,’ he said.”

Read more here.