Research about business journalism

I’ve been arguing for several years that the best research about business journalism is being done by U.S. business school professors and communications academics in Europe, not at U.S. journalism and mass communication schools.

For the business school professors, their research focuses on the effects of business news coverage on the markets. For example, in the Journal of Portfolio Management in 2004, two professors found that the bond yield projection in The Wall Street Journal was wrong two-thirds of the time. A 2002 study in the Journal of Banking and Finance suggests a correlation between media coverage of a company’s poor performance and the likelihood that the company would change its CEO.

European researchers have proven that investors who follow recommendations in the business media will underperform the market, perhaps a conclusion that is not surprising. They have also concluded that the business media has an overall positive bias.

Then there is Thomas Schuster, a former journalism professor at Leipzig University, who wrote the book, “The Markets and the Media: Business News and Stock Market movements” in 2006, analyzing dozens of studies. Schuster has since left academia.

So it should come as no surprise that on Friday I received a request from a communications researcher based in Spain who is comparing the ownership of business newspapers across the world. She notes that business newspapers in the United States and England are not owned by large media companies, while they are in countries such as Spain. She wants to determine which one is preferable, and was asking for circulation data for The Wall Street Journal.

Here is what I gave her. Note that beginning in 2004, the Journal was allowed to count part of its online subscribers.

1987: 2,026,276 (six months ended March 31)

1988: 2,025,176 (six months ended March 31)

1989: 1,931,410 (six months ended March 31)

1990: 1,935,866 (six months ended March 31)

1991: 1,919,355 (six months ended March 31)

1992: 1,852,863 (six months ended March 31)

1993: 1,852,967 (six months ended March 31)

1994: 1,854,901 (six months ended March 31)

1995: 1,823,207 (six months ended March 31)

1996: 1,841,188 (six months ended March 31)

1997: 1,837,194 (six months ended March 31)

1998: 1,820,815 (six months ended March 31)

1999: 1,792,452 (six months ended March 31)

2000: 1,812,590 (six months ended March 31)

2001: 1,821,000 (six months ended March 31)

2002: 1,820,525 (six months ended March 31)

2003: 1,820,600 (six months ended March 31)

2004: 2,101,017 (six months ended March 31)

2005: 2,070,498 (six months ended March 31)

2006: 2,049,786 (six months ended March 31)