WaPo CEO defends decision to cut standalone business section

Washington Post Co. CEO Donald Graham defended his company’s decision to put business news inside its paper’s A section instead of giving it a standalone section in a speech Tuesday to the Economic Club of Washington.

Dow Jones Newswires reporter Judith Burns writes, “Graham defended the Post’s decision to end its standalone business section, saying he thinks that business stories are ‘significantly more widely read now’ that they appear in the main section of the paper. He added that market turmoil and a weak economy might be contributing to the spike in readership of business news stories.”

The Post cuts its standalone business section in March 2009. Since that time, the Post cut a deal with Bloomberg News where the wire service is now providing a lot of the paper’s non-Washington business coverage.

Other large metro newspapers that have cut their standalone business sections include the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Boston Globe, Baltimore Sun, Seattle Times, Chicago Tribune, Orange County Register, St. Petersburg Times, Tampa Tribune, The (Raleigh) News & Observer, Denver Post, Cincinnati Enquirer, Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch, Reno (Nev.) Gazette-Journal, Winston-Salem (N.C.) Journal, Monterey (Calif.) Herald, Palm Beach Post and Akron (Ohio) Beacon-Journal.

However, on Tuesday, the San Jose Mercury News announced internally that it was bringing back its standalone section.

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