What biz reporters can do that computers will never be able to

Business journalist Max Frumes, the founder of Quant Media, explores the efforts of the three big players in business journalism — Bloomberg, Dow Jones and Reuters — in terms of using computers to produce content and concludes that reporters still provide a necessary function.

Frumes writes, “The work that it takes to regularly generate scoops or develop a reputation for being an arbiter of the beat you cover takes time and integrity. In technical business journalism it’s even more important to have a moral compass, because once you’ve gone from a place where you’re just a competitive advantage to have, to being a competitive disadvantage not to have — even if an outlet is regularly wrong, people still need to subscribe to know what’s moving the market.

“Yet in this day of media upheaval, if an information provider is not profitable, it’s not going to last: In order to be in a position to play that role for whatever community your publication is catering to, it needs to be have a sustainable business model. Bloomberg is certainly profitable — but its mission has always been more monopolistic than journalistic. And the larger outlets that have the most solid ethical standing have seen their numbers dwindle as print ads disappear.

“Reuters and Dow Jones have been contorting to compete with Bloomberg, which has its own limitations based on its mission and editorial structure. So all three have left big openings for smaller business news providers — who will be able to compete with increasingly democratized technology and teams of credible, knowledgeable editorial staff.”

Read more here.

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.