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Newspaper Business Sections Could End

  • Ad Age, Tuesday, February 19, 2008 10:30 AM

As newspapers are forced to make cuts due to declining circulation and ad revenue, some are starting to look at their stand-alone business sections as increasingly expendable. The Denver Post, which just folded its business section into other sections on every day but Sunday, has become the eighth daily to make that move since early last year. The cuts have caused some outcry from business reporters and public-relations executives, but many analysts, advertisers and publishers say the stand-alone sections were not great for ad revenue and were often beat by national and online competition, apart from hyperlocal stories.

"We've never had much use for local business sections with B-to-B clients," says Andrew Swinand, top print buyer at Starcom USA, with clients including Oracle. For him, the best local business sections are those that dominate an industry of particular interest, like the New York Post's focus on the media biz.

And, notes newspaper-industry analyst Ed Atorino, of Benchmark Capital: "You do get a story once in awhile about a local storeowner or a closing or something, but most of what's in those sections is rip and read. With all the business news on TV and the Internet, the consumer is getting it someplace else."

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