The Big Picture

By Chris Roush
June 18, 2009

This is the last Roush Rant, as this Web site is undergoing an overhaul designed to make it more user-friendly for business journalists.

So, let’s go out with a bang.

Despite the fact that I am overall optimistic about the future of business journalism, I’m exceedingly pessimistic about the next nine to 12 months, if not longer, for business reporters and editors. The business news industry won’t grow once again until the economy gets better. Simple as that.

More important, the leaders in business journalism are simply reacting, not coming up with new ideas that will lead us into the future. Sure, there are some business publications, a handful of business sections and a few Web sites doing unique and reader-catching stuff. But the rest of you are simply plugging your fingers into the leaks, hoping that the dam will hold.

I’ve got breaking news: The dam will not hold. The industry is changing. You either adapt, or die. Cutting stock listings, putting your business news behind another section and revamping your coverage to make it more consumer friendly are all good ideas - for the short term. But they are just that, stopgap measures that don’t address the bigger issue that you’re not giving people what they want.

I’m also troubled by the lack of interest in training future business journalists. Most business media outlets have cut their internship programs to the bone or altogether. And those that remain struggle to understand what to do with an intern who professes an interest in business.

Hey, Mr. Editor, one way to interest that intern into covering business is to put them on the business desk instead of having them cover cops. At one paper in my area, I had to send an e-mail to the editor, whom I know from a previous life, to explain that the paper’s intern - not from my school - has an interest in business journalism and maybe it might be a good idea to have them spend a few weeks on the business desk.

How did I know about this random student, whom I’ve never met? I reached out to her four months ago. The business news industry isn’t doing that.

What’s more, I’m seeing good people - journalists with unique and creative ideas - being ignored, and therefore they’re leaving the world of business journalism. That’s not good either.

To summarize, too many people in business journalism today are concerned about saving their own skin and have become myopic. They’re not looking at the big picture.

I don’t have all the answers. Not all of my ideas are going to work.

But at least I’m willing to try something new and look at the world of business journalism from a different perspective.

Until we meet again.

Copyright © 2009 Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism