Naming Business Sections

By Chris Roush
June 2, 2008

The Sacramento Bee’s decision to merge its business news section and its metro news section into a new section called “Our Region” got me to thinking about what business sections are called around the country. I’ve reached a conclusion that the whole business journalism fraternity does a crappy job of marketing itself.

By marketing, I mean how business news sections are named. And “Our Region” is Exhibit A. Does that mean that business news that occurs out of the Sacramento “region” won’t run in the section?

The “business” section is not any better, mind you. Let’s face it, “business” news sections don’t just have stories and information about the business world. On a typical day, they also include stories about related topics such as labor, workplace, technology, personal finance, investment, and consumer reporting, in addition to investigative reporting focusing on these topics.

In addition, the title “business” section implies that we “business” journalists have an inherent bias in favor of the CEOs and corporate execs we write about and a bias against labor, organized and unorganized.

So, Mr. Smarty Pants, you’re saying right now, what do you propose we call it, then?

Let’s look at our options. I know some “business” sections such as USA Today’s are actually called “Money,” and that moniker does a good job of encompassing the above topics, but it still doesn’t do it for me. There are lots of labor and workplace stories, like making your workplace more ergonomic, for instance, that don’t have anything to do with money.

Then there’s “Your Money,” which I commonly see as the name of Sunday or Monday “business” sections devoted to personal finance coverage. And I like that title, but it only works for specialized, one-day sections.

There’s “Workplace,” and while that also does a better job of describing things other than “business,” it still excludes such important stories as the stock market, mergers and acquisitions and earnings.

I’ve also seen “Money & Markets,” but again, that’s not covering everything. In fact, I would argue it’s somewhat redundant.

I like “Work & Money” the best. It’s a combination of personal finance, workplace and corporate activity, all rolled into one. Yet, I find that title only at a handful of papers, such as The Modesto Bee and The (Raleigh) News & Observer, and at the latter, only on the weekends.

But while we’re overhauling the “business” section at most papers, how about an examination of the name as well? Making the switch might actually begin telling readers what to expect when they turn to its pages.

Copyright © 2008 Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism