Weidner on biz media and covering Wall Street

David Weidner, a Marketwatch.com Wall Street columnist and leaving New York for San Francisco, where he will begin writing a new column in a few weeks focusing on another aspect of finance.

In his column, he offers advice and commentary for business journalists covering Wall Street:

Timing is everything: Market journalism should be written in two ways. The first would give you the trader’s perspective. The second would be for the long-term, buy-and-hold investor. Too often, we’re caught up in the daily fluctuations in our portfolios. What really matters is what the investments are worth when we need them.

Too cozy for comfort: It’s less of a problem since the financial crisis, but the business media are still too cozy with the powerful on Wall Street to do their jobs correctly. The media still fawned over Wall Street stars such as Jamie Dimon at J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. ; Eliot Spitzer, former New York governor and attorney general, and Jimmy Cayne of Bear Stearns. Why? They all dished tips or dirt on their rivals. Access journalism still dominates the landscape, and you — the reader — suffer for it.

Best of the rest: Consistently the best reporters and commentators on Wall Street outside of the Dow Jones empire, which includes MarketWatch and The Wall Street Journal: Josh Brown of the Reformed Broker, Mark Gongloff at the Huffington Post, Barry Ritholtz of the Big Picture, John Gapper and Martin Wolf at the Financial Times.

Read more here.