Advertising Age chimes in on dying biz sections

Advertising Age today takes a look at the demise of stand-alone business sections. The article by Jeremy Mullman looks at the rip and read factor facing local papers, where things stand for business journals and the impacts of new national business organizations such as Fox Business News and Conde Nast's Portfolio.
The article taps into a recent study by the Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism at Arizona State University, which found that "roughly 75% of daily newspapers today run, on average, one page or less of business news a day, and only one in eight daily papers runs a stand-alone section. "
The article continues with:

Andrew Leckey, who runs the ASU program[Reynolds Center], said the editorial impact of the section consolidations is limited because business news has gradually leaked into other pages. Front pages, he noted, have been dominated in recent weeks by stories about the mortgage crisis, a potential recession, Super Bowl ads and even box-office returns.
"Business news makes it into the other sections more than it used to," he said.
Andrea Mathewson, publisher of the Akron-Beacon Journal, which merged its weekday business section into the sports section, said the advertising impact has been minimal. "There really wasn't much support for the stand-alone anyhow," she said.

Read the full article here.