The body count in biz journalism

Talking Biz News has compiled a list of the carnage in business journalism in the last 15 months, and it’s not a pretty sight.

Here are the numbers:

• At least 44 daily newspapers have cut their standalone business sections during the week. Those include the Boston Globe and the Denver Post. Two papers — the Chicago Tribune and the Orange County Register — have reversed their decisions.
• At least 16 daily newspapers have eliminated their standalone Sunday or Monday business sections. Some of those papers, such as the Baltimore Sun, had also eliminated their standalone section during the week.
• At least nine major metropolitan papers, including the Chicago Tribune, Newark Star-Ledger and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, have had newsroom buyouts that have cut their business news staffs by a sizable amount.
• At least another 14 business media outlets have had layoffs that have cut their staffs covering business and economics news. And I’m only counting the papers that I know of where at least three people from business news were laid off.

Finally, two business news publications have shuttered their print operations. They are the East Bay Business Journal, operated by American City Business Journals, and Financial Week, operated by Crain Communications. Go back further in time, and the list includes Business 2.0 magazine.

Given this backdrop, it should come as no surprise that the Society of American Business Editors and Writers announced Thursday that it would help distressed business journalists.

It’s cutting by 50 percent the individual membership fee for business journalists who work at a media outlet that has cut its SABEW institutional membership in a cost-cutting mode. And it’s creating a mentor program for business journalists who have lost their jobs and are seeking work.