WSJ is most influential financial news outlet

The Wall Street Journal is the most influential financial news outlet, but the New York Times has half of the top 10 most influential business journalists, according to a survey of business journalists released Friday.

The Journal was followed closely by Bloomberg News, and then The New York Times, Reuters, the Financial Times, CNBC and Dow Jones Newswires.

Journalists are allowed to nominate up to three media organizations. The Journal was named 72 percent of the time, while Bloomberg was named by 60.1 percent of respondents.

Andrew Ross Sorkin, the New York Times columnist and CNBC anchor, is perceived as the most influential U.S. financial journalist, followed by Gretchen Morgenson of the Times and author Michael Lewis.

The survey of 349 financial journalists was conducted by two DePaul University professors — Matt Ragas and Hai Tran — for Gorkana, and the results were released Friday at the Society of American Business Editors and Writers annual conference in Indianapolis.

Almost four out of five journalists — 77.8 percent — have a neutral or positive outlook on the health of financial journalism during the next year. More are positive — 33.4 percent — than negative — 22.2 percent — on the outlook of financial journalism. This may indicate that financial journalists believe the worst is behind them as a field, according to the study.

Financial journalists indicated that they rely most on reading newspapers or other publications — in other words, monitoring what their peers are covering — as a source of story ideas. The personal interest of the journalist of that of someone on their staff is also an important source of ideas.

The journalists surveyed also assign the most credibility to information provided by a company CEO.

For a copy of the study, email croush@email.unc.edu.