Tag Archives: Agate changes
WSJ reinstates regular dividend table
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Hal Morris, writing on his Grumpy Editor blog, is happy that The Wall Street Journal has brought back the regular dividends table to its Money & Investing section.
Morris writes, “The WSJ abandoned regular dividends in print months ago, spotlighting only changes, including reduced, increased, initial, irregular, special and foreign.
Since then — while more convenient to open up the Journal and check the dividends table — readers/investors had to search the Web to see dividend action of companies with unchanged payouts.
“Important to investors: knowledge of record and payable dates, even with regular dividends.
“With the reinstatement of regular payouts, The WSJ still headlines the table Dividend Changes rather than Dividend Digest or such. Also, the Money & Investing front page index box continues to omit reference to the dividends table in that section.”
Read more here.
Little Rock publisher: I won't cut printed stock listings
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TALKING BIZ NEWS EXCLUSIVE
The publisher and owner of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette said Monday that the paper has no plans to cut its printed stock listings, despite the fact that virtually every metro newspaper in the country has done so and put stock listings online.
“Maybe some day,” said Walter E. Hussman Jr., speaking to an “Economics Reporting” class at the University of North Carolina. “But given the current economy, I don’t want to do anything to make someone cancel their subscription.”
Hussman also said there were no plans to cut the printed stock listings at the Chattanooga Times Free Press, which he also owns.
“There are still people who don’t go online every day,” said Hussman. “There are still people who want to get their stocks in the daily paper. In some markets, the printed stocks still have an avid interest.”
Hussman noted that the Little Rock paper publishes more stock listings daily than The Wall Street Journal, which he lauded during his talk for its increased coverage and its charging for access to its online content. The Little Rock paper also charges for content access online.
“I subscribe to the printed edition of The Journal, and I subscibe to the online edition,” said Hussman. “The Journal is one of the few papers that has improved its coverage and expanded its coverage.”
DISCLOSURE: I hold the Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Scholar in business journalism position at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. It was funded by Hussman Jr. to honor his father.
Sunday snippets
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The Pottstown Mercury newspaper in Pennsylvania is cutting back on its stock listings during the week. Editor Nancy March writes, “We are scaling our stocks listings to an abbreviated format with graphics reporting to allow more columns of local Business news.”
The Oshkosh Northwestern is folding its business section into its sports section. Managing editor James Fitzhenry writes, “There is no less room for sports or business, we just distributed the space differently. Rest assured that Streetwise is still walking the business beat and sharing his unique take and tastes on the town, just in a different storefront.”
Katherine Fiorile, leaves her job as the associate producer for “Opening Bell †and “Countdown to the Closing Bell,†on the Fox Business Network in New York.
MSNBC.com launches new stocks page
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Martin Wolk, the executive business editor of MSNBC.com, writes Monday about the Web sites new stock page.
Wolk writes, “To be quite honest, this change is long overdue. Msnbc.com users depend on us for the latest business news and deserve an easy way to track and research companies and investment ideas. With this new feature we take a major step toward a more complete integration of news and stock information.
“Data for the new stock quote pages come from Interactive Data Corp., a leading provider of financial information to institutions and investors, which worked with msnbc.com to create the customized offering.
“‘Together we were able to develop a solution to help msnbc.com’s users more effectively analyze comprehensive financial data in order to make investment decisions,’ said Luan Cox, general manager of Interactive Data Managed Solutions for the Americas.”
Read more here.
AP redesigns markets site
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The Associated Press has redesigned its Markets Web site. The Web site has been enhanced to include better navigation and design.
Money & Markets, customizable for both print and online use, provides insight into the financial markets with a broad mix of text, graphics and data modules.
“Users have told us the new site looks great, is easy to navigate, and provides increased functionality and better access to product information,” said Josh Orenstein, AP Global director of business and financial products, in a statement. “The new features really highlight our Money & Markets product, and the site has been designed so that members can easily take action,” Orenstein said.
The site now allows subscribers to more easily login and download their files. A new “Featured Members” page provides links to existing member implementations of Money & Markets online, giving subscribers a quick way of seeing Money & Markets “in action.” Ticker/Stub Lookup is featured more prominently on the page so members can easily figure out abbreviations or stub names in their print listings.
“The updated Web site emphasizes the current Money & Markets product offerings while still providing information about Grand Central Stocks (GCS), StocksExpress, and our Quarterly/Annual products,” said Russell Pollack, AP manager of markets operations, in a statement.
Money & Markets Print, Online, and Extra Modules are prominently featured on the home page with robust drill-down information available. Money & Markets Print Product drill-down information includes a pop-up window providing easy one-click access to samples of each module. Money & Markets Online drill-down information offers “live” samples of modules.
There are detailed “Help” and “Download” pages providing one-stop access to everything a member needs for Money & Markets. In addition, downloads, fonts, GCS data elements, fund classifications and more are easily located from the main navigation.
Providence Journal cuts standalone business section
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The Providence Journal has cut the pages it’s devoting to business news, according to a column from executive editor Thomas Heslin.
The economic and financial news will appear in a new section called projoNation. On Sunday, a new section will debut called projoConsumer.
Heslin writes, “The Sunday Journal will carry a new section to help you get by in the 21st-century economy. You’ll find reports on consumer news and information, product recalls, credit cards, technology, job hunts, road alerts affecting the daily job commute, and the special ‘Wall Street Journal Sunday’ report.”
He later adds, “The pages formerly allocated for the Business section, and the space formerly allocated to the Sunday Extra section, have been reallocated to improve your reading experiences.”
Read more here.Â
Canada paper cuts stock listings
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Paul Berton, the editor of the London Free Press in Ontario, writes Saturday about the decision to cut the paper’s printed stock listings.
Berton writes, “We will still carry a daily package of indicators, including market highlights, market trends, mercantile, grain quotations, farm summary, and foreign exchange in the newspaper, but if you want to learn about stocks on the TSX or the NYSE, or mutual funds, you’ll have to go to money.canoe.ca.
“It is not fair for everyone, especially those who haven’t been able, for one reason or another, to embrace the Internet, but it’s the right thing for us, economically and environmentally.
“There is more business news than ever, yet increasingly less space for it in the newspaper. We’re hoping we can free up some of that space used by stock data for articles and stories.”
Read more here.
Ohio paper cuts stock listings
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The Tribune Chronicle in Warren, Ohio is cutting its printed stock listings from Tuesday through Saturday.
A story in the paper Sunday stated, “Tuesday, the newspaper will unveil a new look to its daily financial pages. For years, the newspaper has provided a comprehensive daily listing of stocks and mutual funds, which allowed readers to track items of their choosing from the New York Stock Exchange, NASDAQ or AMEX exchanges. There also was a grouping of Wall Street and general financial news along with the listings.
“The improved format brings important financial data with a fresh look. In addition to listing some stocks, including local ones, and mutual funds, the new format highlights trends and analyses in text and graphic forms to replace the static full-page listings previously offered. A third business page will continue to focus on local developments.
“‘The format changes will provide the depth of coverage readers have come to expect from the Tribune Chronicle: concisely written and packaged information for time-pressed readers who want useful market news and trends quickly,’ said Frank Robinson, editor of the newspaper. ‘These are changing times, and newspapers have to adjust to the needs of the readers.”
Read more here.
Quick hits from Sunday
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– The Evansville Courier Press in Indiana is cutting its stock listings in favor of the Money & Markets page from the Associated Press.
– The Tampa Tribune in Florida is cutting some of its printed stock listings to accommodate the narrower paper that it will begin printing on.
– The Sacramento Bee has added a “Job Front” column in its Monday business page as part of an overall emphasis on recession coverage throughout the paper.
Printed earnings table disappears from WSJ
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Hal Morris, writing on his Grumpy Editor blog, notes that the printed earnings table that has appeared in The Wall Street Journal is now gone.
Morris writes, “For whatever reason, probably to save space, WSJ.com subscribers will only be able to access earnings by going to ”company research” on the site.
“Going to that site is not as handy or convenient as quickly scanning the list —often at the breakfast table — that, yesterday (with its final appearance), contained 49 earnings reports.
“Some readers will grumble that unless they know the exact date of earnings releases of companies in their portfolios, it means time-consuming daily clicking on the WSJ’s Web site for the figures.
“Earnings tables on the Web cover only the prior five business days.”
Read more here.
