Warning: Don't Slash Business Coverage

By Chris Roush
June 27, 2008

I’ve been feeling a bit like Alfred E. Newman lately, flashing my Cheshire cat smile and saying, “What, me worry?” while the rest of business journalism collapses around me.

Let’s be honest. The situation in business news stinks. Metro dailies are cutting their standalone business sections. Business reporters and editors are losing their jobs – either through forced layoffs or buyouts. Meanwhile, others are leaving the business news business for more stable jobs in PR or other fields.

There seems to be no end to the downward spiral for business journalism that began four years ago when papers starting trimming printed stock listings.

And, yet, I believe that business journalism will emerge from this trough stronger and deeper, primarily because of what’s happening in the outside world that demands to be covered by experienced business journalists.

What journalists – and managers or media properties – seem to be forgetting is that there is no more important story to tell consumers than that of business and the economy.

Look around us. Gas prices are on everyone’s mind, and the rising price of gas affects a number of different issues, from food to the family vacation. People can’t get enough news and information about this topic.

Then there’s the stock market, which has been treading water this year due to the uncertain economy. We live in a society where a record number of people will retire in the next decade, and they want to know what to do with the money that they have socked away for retirement. Who’s going to provide unbiased investment information?

People are losing their jobs outside of journalism as well. More and more, they need coverage to tell them what companies are hiring, where the jobs are moving to, and what companies have reputations as good workplaces.

I’ve talked to a lot of business editors who have made the above argument to their bosses as reasons why business news coverage shouldn’t be cut.  Sadly, most haven’t been heard. Even though I believe publications that maintain their business news staff and hold – or increase it – will be the ones that come out of this media downturn in the best shape.

And when that day comes, we’ll shake our heads and say, “I told you so” to the media who cut business news muscle and bone. You know who you are.

I long for the day when a publisher or editor announces that they’re expanding business coverage – and cutting something else – because that’s what their readers need to make it through the tough times.

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