Making the argument to combine biz and news desks

William Hartnett, a reporter at the Palm Beach Post, has a personal blog in which he assesses a variety of things, including the current state of journalism.

In a post Thursday, Hartnett examines the argument for keeping business news desks separate from general news desks. He makes a good case for why the two should be combined.

Hartnett wrote, “The value of business reporting is unquestionable, when it’s done well, anyway. Fine, fine, fine. But can someone tell me why most newspapers of a certain size continue to maintain separate local news and local business news departments? Would anyone designing a newsroom from scratch make this choice?

“I’ve read some of the pro-separation arguments, but I still don’t get it. A health reporter on one side of the room and a business of health reporter on the other? Real estate reporters in business, government reporters covering taxes and development policy in metro? Most newspaper people seem to think we’ve cost-cut to the bone, but consider, really consider, all the structural and bureaucratic inefficiencies in our newsrooms that are nothing more than remnants of what I like to call newspapers’ Era of Delusion.”

Read more here. According to his blog, Hartnett works on the paper’s new Florida Home section, which has a real estate focus. He specializes in computer-assisted reporting.