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Can you hand me the business section?

July 29, 2008

I’ll keep this short.  Although maybe not as short as the News and Observer’s “business pages”.  But let me start by giving a full disclaimer: this post is mostly a rant about the scanty business coverage the Raleigh-Durham daily newspaper provides.

Let me illustrate the situation.  This past Sunday’s business section of the N&O consisted of 6 pages and that seems to be pretty typical.  It’s actually not the “business section”,  it’s called “Work & Money” and there seems to be no “Business” section as such.  Which, I guess, means that “Work & Money” not only needs to cover business issues, but also employment issues (though not Help Wanted) and personal finance.

Let me describe what you get:

  • Page 1 is local content: tips for getting a good deal when buying a car, office etiquette, some local iPhone application developers.
  • Page 2 is mostly “scrap”: reader talk-back, an editorial about minimum wage, a poll about personal finance, some ads.
  • Page 3 is all personal finance stuff.  Not relevant if you’re looking for local business news.
  • Page 4 and 5 look familiar.  The kinda stuff you read in the Wall Street Journal.  Wait, this is the WSJ… inside the N&O.  OK, that’s one way to fill a paper, you copy whole pages from another paper.  (It even says “Wall Street Journal” at the top of the pages).
  • Page 6 is the continuation of 2 articles from page 1 and has two short stories about new phone services, neither of which has a local angle.

So I get it — it’s a cost-cutting issue.  The paper had to reduce resources to stay profitable.  But its a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy.  As you reduce the content, you start to loose readers.  Which in turn may force you to cut your costs further.  Etc.

Maybe I’m spoiled having read the Sunday business sections of papers like the Boston Globe, Dallas Morning News, Arizona Republic and others.  But I can’t help but feel that strong coverage of local business helps maintain and promote a strong local business climate.  And everyone benefits from a strong local business climate, whether you read the business section or not.

So I’ll use the “Work & Money” section to swat flies and look for local business news elsewhere.

Written by Marc DeWalle · Filed Under Blog, Media, Startups 

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