The problem with small business news coverage

“Hi, I’m a small business owner.”

Does anybody introduce themselves like that at a party? Airport bar? School picnic?

No. It’s “I’m in shoes” or “I’m a restauranteur” or “I do software consulting.”*

Yet business news outfits insist on covering small businesses as, well, “small business.” And, in large part, they fail; no huge audience and no must-read journalism.

Nevertheless, everybody has the category. Go ahead, cruise the biz sites. Typically up in the top bar or pull-downs you’ll find you’ll find a “Small Business” section.

That helps the ad sales guys. Why?

Periodically one or the other of the major financial institutions — the ones that do the bulk of the advertising with business news platforms — decides to make a push into small business financing . Ad dollars are suddenly available. And the salesman can walk right in, point at the “Small Business” Web site section, and tell the client: “Yep, we’re all over it.”

So the account is won. But the readers?

Sure, there are lots of individual stories that are stellar and get wide circulation; and for good reason. This is a realm full of human drama, emotion, and risk. It’s also an area where important lessons are learned and need to be shared. And the subject covers some really interesting and engaging operations and scenery.

Indeed, the visuals make it an area where business news video can actually go beyond the guy-in-a-business-suit interview. (One of my favorite examples is still this old CNNMoney.com fishmonger piece).

But as a category most small business sections tend to struggle to get a sustained audience (so you see a lot of slideshows or celebrity-themed pieces to bulk up the page view count).

To be sure, there are a few outfits that are highly successful in the topic (a couple of magazines come to mind). But you’ll notice they leapfrog the whole “small business” label and concentrate on the innovation and entrepreneurship behind it.

Taking a cue, some business news outfits call their small business sections something along the lines of “entrepreneurship” or “enterprise” or such.

But it’s not about changing labels. It’s about changing the coverage approach. Maybe instead of lumping all small businesses together, it should be more about industry verticals: retailers, restaurants, etc. Or perhaps divided by business models: product-based vs. service based, for example.

Of course, it might be harder to sell the account that way.

*Okay, for you nitpickers out there…yes, at times you will see someone get up and say “I’m a small business owner.” It’s usually in a contrived setting, like a politician’s town hall. “Mr. President, I’m a small business owner. How will your tax plan help me?” Yeah, no coaching there.

Allen Wastler is the former managing editor of CNBC.com and the former managing editor of CNNMoney.com. You can follow him at @awastler or check out his LinkedIn profile.