The business journalism behind Nikkei

Jonathan Soble of the New York Times writes about the business journalism behind Nikkei, the Japanese company that announced earlier this month it was acquiring the Financial Times.

Soble writes, “Mr. Otsuka, the former Nikkei reporter, said companies saw the paper as a friendly place to leak information on acquisitions, new products and financial results. “The vast majority of the scoops are leaks,” he said. Companies expect positive coverage in return, he added, and fear being ignored if they do not cooperate.

“‘Reporters will tell you that if you don’t give a story to them exclusively, they won’t write it at all,’ said a public relations official at a prominent Japanese company that invests and trades in commodities. Like several others in this article, the official did not want to be quoted for fear of jeopardizing relations with the newspaper.

“Nikkei declined to make Mr. Okada, its president, or Tsuneo Kita, its chairman and chief executive, available for interviews. It asked instead that all questions be submitted by fax.

“Stock market regulators in Japan have begun warning companies against leaking certain kinds of information, particularly financial data — another reason Nikkei may see its traditional territory narrowing. Last year Bloomberg, which competes with Nikkei for financial scoops, counted 45 instances in which Nikkei reported a company’s year-end financial results before they were officially announced.”

Read more here.