What should a business news section accomplish?

Carole Tarrant, the editor of the Roanoke Times, is looking for a new business editor. She and I have had an e-mail discussion recently about what a business news section should accomplish for her readers.

I asked her to put in writing her philosophy about the paper’s business section. Here is what she sent me:

“We’re looking for a business editor who understands you’re writing for two readers. One is a member of the local business community, someone who looks to the daily paper to get a temperature gauge on who’s succeeding and maybe some advice on how they can, too.

“The other is outside the community and looks to the daily paper to answer a big and basic need: Help me figure out how to save a buck.

“The business editor has to continuously shift resources from the insider to the outsider. It’s a tough gig, no doubt, but if you just accept this bipolar readership and organize what you do around it, it can work.

“A lot of our best business enterprise runs on 1A, which is a credit to the current staff in making their stories approachable for all readers.

“We have a biz staff of four reporters. They contribute to a daily biz page and jump page, then a Sunday biz section.

“And I should add that to be happy here you’ve got to be genuinely into online — you don’t need to know all of the how, but just understand the why.”

I think that’s a good summary of how a business section operates, and what it should accomplish.