March 13th, 2009
Washington Post kills stand-alone business section
updated: The Washington Post said today that it will eliminate the stand-alone section devoted to business news, wrapping the news into the paper’s A section instead, and will dramatically reduce the amount of stock data it publishes. The change takes effect March 30. The memo to employees has been posted by Washington City Paper.
For full disclosure, I worked for the Post’s Business News department from August 2005 to November 2007, first as a editor on the tech news team and later as a reporter/blogger for the same team. As such, I know about some of the issues that the department faced, including tough decisions involving the reduction of the stock charts, and shrinking news hole, the amount of space that’s left for news after the ad placement is determined.
The Post, like so many other newspapers, is having to transform itself in a rapidly changing news environment. With so many stories that come out of the department tied somehow to national issues - from the credit crunch to the housing crisis to the economic stimulus plan - it makes sense that they would appear in the “main news” section of the paper. Still, it’s unfortunate that the business “section front,” which allowed more flexibility on how to put the news on display, will disappear.
The Post’s story quotes for my former boss, Sandy Sugawara, who does a nice job of putting things into perspective:
Sandra Sugawara, assistant managing editor for business news, called the decision “a reality” at a time when few newspapers still publish full pages of agate type on stock prices. She said the migration to the A section would help “brand” her staff’s coverage as being “at the intersection of business and government,” and was better than being packaged inside the Sports section, as has often happened in the past. “Some people will be disappointed,” Sugawara said. “But given the various options, this is a good option for us.”
Sam Diaz is a senior editor at ZDNet. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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