Paper cuts stock listings, hears from readers

The Bristol Herald Courier, the paper on the Virginia/Tennessee border, cut its stock listings last week and switched to the AP’s Money & Markets page, and heard from a number of readers, wrote managing editor Jeff Foster. Now, it’s considered making changes to appease those readers.

Foster wrote, “The Associated Press launched this new Money & Markets page back in October, and more than 100 papers have jumped on board so far, with scores more waiting in the wings.

“‘The response everywhere is very similar to what you’re seeing,’ said Todd Balog, manager of AP’s Stock Support Group, based in Kansas City.

“‘[Readers] like the new format because it’s much more graphically oriented,’ Balog said. ‘You get calls from your older readers who are used to reading an A-to-Z listings of stocks.

“‘There’s a movement toward more online content,’ he said. “That’s very much true with all papers and not just stock data. Papers are trying to react to that. There needs to be something that replaces that page. This seems like a logical progression from what you’re running to something that brings readers back.’

“But Balog said newspapers that have made the change have gotten reader feedback and then backtracked some to include more stock listings.”

Read more here.