What's wrong with business journalism

Greg Gentschev, the founder of Brekiri, a business information-focused search engine, writes about what he perceives to be the problems with business journalism.

Gentschev hates earnings stories, and he can’t understand the dearth of good business blogs.

Gentschev writes, “More generally, nothing gets put in context.  Few articles appear to have the space (and few writers the time and energy) to contextualize the latest company announcement in the industry, discuss how it might play out in terms of company strengths and weaknesses, and come to a truly novel conclusion.  Also, to go back to grinding my earnings axe, the fact that earnings are up 50% this quarter means nothing unless we know how the year-ago quarter looked compared to the long-term trend.

“Business magazines and especially trade publications do a better job, of course.  Trade publications in particular provide more in-depth analyses of their industries and specific companies.  Unfortunately, I’m pretty much a generalist, so I can’t necessarily spend the time to keep track of these resources.  I also tend to avoid subscribing to specific sources unless I need them for a current client project.

“In the end, we get the information, like the government, that we deserve.  There’s simply no mass market for better business information, so in a way I can’t really hold the business press responsible for a certain striving for the lowest common denominator.  Consider the fact that the Wall Street Journal, since being purchased by News Corp and slowly evolving towards a business tabloid, is perhaps the only major US newspaper with increasing circulation.  In a way, this is a ‘it’s not you, it’s me’ type of problem.  I’m simply out of synch with the type of content and writing that drives mass media markets, such as they are.  Depth and utility don’t sell (much).”

Read more here.