Making the decision to cut stock listings, with reader help

Dennis Fulton, the business editor at the Dallas Morning News, writes Friday about the paper’s decision to cut its printed stock listings, which at the beginning of the year, with the help of reader suggestions on what to keep.

Fulton writes, “In case you missed it, on Jan. 3, we discontinued most weekday national stock listings, particularly the Top 500. We kept our market indices and we kept an expanded report on Saturdays only.

“About 300 readers wrote or called to say that wasn’t good enough. Most were very understanding and helpful. It’s a business truism that successful companies listen to their customers. We did, and based on those suggestions we found ways to restore most of the stock and mutual fund listings, without using more space.

“For one thing, we learned that even in an era where stock listings are easily available on the Web, many readers find them to be especially useful in our paper.

“‘I know I can get stock prices online. I do it all the time,’ one reader said. ‘But perusing the listings is part of my morning ritual. It goes with my coffee and Post Toasties.’

“Another reader said he values the ability to scan a large number of stocks at a glance. He runs a finger down each column of stocks looking for the new 52-week low or the attractive price-earnings ratio or the best performing mutual fund in a class. He says he’s picked his best investments that way.”

Read more here.