When publishers give financial news the business

Reflecting one of the most alarming budget-cutting trends, hardly a day passes without another newspaper announcing that it's scaling back or even eliminating business news. That's a major blow to watchdog journalism, because business interests drive so much of government. Newspapers did a so-so job covering the run-up to the mortgage crisis. With even fewer business journalists, it's hard to see how consumers will be better served the next time.

Publishers are trimming business news after first eliminating stock price agate -- a smart step, since Yahoo and other online giants have been reporting share prices nearly real time for a decade. Yet, taking away the agate "revealed business coverage so thin that in many cases it couldn't justify an entire section,'' Elinore Longobardi of Columbia Journalism Review wrote last week.

If a paper's business news is already published in another section -- like metro or sports -- the loss of agate makes it even easier to whittle away at business newshole, too. Combine the business editor and metro editor jobs, and you save even more. Then, once understaffed metro desks get their mitts on the business news staff, it's tempting to draft those new reporters for non-business coverage. In short order, there are few resources left for financial news at all.

Has your newspaper cut business news? When and how? Tell your story, in the comments section, below. Or use this link to e-mail feedback, tips, snarky letters, etc. See Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the green sidebar, upper right.