Categories: OLD Media Moves

The importance of quality business journalism

Pat Wenstrom and Chuck Wenstrom write for the Freeport Journal-Standard in Illinois about the importance of quality business journalism.

The Wenstroms write, “One consequence of the change is the decline in labor coverage and the increase in business articles. The authors say that the labor beat was once an important beat in large or mid-sized papers. But by the 1990s it had more or less ceased to exist. In fact, coverage of labor issues “shifted from an emphasis on workers to a focus on how labor management conflicts affected ‘upscale’ consumers.”

“The effects of this might be seen if we look at public attitudes toward unions. A Pew poll taken in February 2011 showed that 41 percent of the public had an unfavorable opinion of unions.

“In Wisconsin, during the demonstrations against Gov. Scott Walker, a Pew poll showed that when people were presented with potential state level cuts, the most popular option was “rolling back public workers’ benefits.”

Although most sources point to the state of the economy as a reason for public distrust of unions and predict a rise in their popularity when the economy improves, it would seem that the lack of labor coverage and increased articles geared to the business community in major newspapers have had an effect.”

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Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.