Categories: OLD Media Moves

Yeah, it's Commerce Bancorp. But which one?

Hal Morris writes on the GrumpyEditor.com blog that business journalists need to get the headquarters location of corporations up higher in their stories, especially when the name of the company could be confusing with another business.

Morris wrote, “A Wall Street Journal headline on page 1 of its Money & Investing section on Saturday read:Â Commerce Bancorp: A Target?

“That must have stirred customers, staffers and investors of Commerce Bancorp — all 14 of them around the country, including Commerce Bancorp, Berkeley, Ill.; Commerce Bancorp, Greenwood, Miss., and Commerce Bancorp, Duncan, Okla.

“The Journal was referring to the Commerce Bancorp based in Cherry Hill, N.J.Â But that wasnâ€™t revealed until the 9th paragraph (in the jump portion) of an 18-paragraph story.

“For some reason, the trend these days seems to call for confusing readers by burying a headquarters location deep into a lengthy text rather than immediately after first mention of a company.”

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.