One business story = $55 million

Tom Foremski writes on the ZDNet web site that in today’s times when journalism is under attack, it’s still easy to measure the importance — and value — of business reporting.

Foremski wrote, “Let me give you an example. Tuesday evening I posted a story that Wind River was for sale and IBM is the likely buyer. The story has yet to be proven but it came from an excellent source and one that has proved extremely reliable in the past.

“Wind River stock jumped 9 per cent at the market open and by the end of Wednesday locked in a gain of nearly 7 per cent, or about $55m. That piece of information created a tremendous amount of value for a lot of people.

“And business journalism continues to create a tremendous amount of value. It levels the playing field, it distributes important information used to make business decisions that affect millions of people. There is a tremendous amount of social value in professional journalism.”

Read more here.