The Bradenton Herald, a McClatchy newspaper, will cut its standalone business section beginning next week.

The Herald joins other McClatcy papers such as the Fresno Bee, the Myrtle Beach Sun News and The (Raleigh) News & Observer in making such a move.

Executive editor Joan Krauter writes, “Starting Tuesday, the daily Business section will be combined with the Local section. Economic news remains the No. 1 story in most of our lives, so we looked for ways to make sure we had more space for local business coverage, even as we tightened the paper.

“We’re condensing the Money & Markets agate to one page, highlighting stocks of local interest, top earnings reports, dividends, foreign exchange funds, the top 500 NYSE stocks and the top 500 mutual funds. Many newspapers have eliminated daily listings all together, but readers have told us they still have keen interest in the information on this page.”

Read more here.

The Charlotte Observer has become the latest daily metro to cut its standalone business section, but only on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. It will remain a standalone section on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Other McClatchy papers that have made the cut include The (Raleigh) News & Observer, the Myrtle Beach Sun News and the Fresno Bee.

Editor Rick Thames writes, “In reformatting the business news, we have trimmed back market listings that are now commonly available on many Web sites, including CharlotteObserver.com (go to ‘business,’ then ‘market summary’). However, we have retained our stock listings of more than 100 Carolinas-oriented companies, as well as our Readers’ Choice listing of more than 300 stocks.

“Where are the mutual funds? Our list of 270 funds, many of them requested by readers, will still appear inside the Friday and Saturday Business sections.

“The Money&Markets analysis and snapshots of business sectors and the economy will also appear on those days.”

Read more here.

The Cape Cod Times will be cutting its printed stock listings, according to a story Saturday by Sarah Shemkus.

Shemkus wrote, “The daily business page will continue to include the same number of stock and mutual fund listings, but other financial market content will be eliminated. The Sunday business section, which currently includes more than four pages of stock and fund listings, will contain one page of listings focused on stocks and mutuals of specific interest to readers.

“The changes were precipitated by falling advertising revenue and shrinking profitability, Meyer and Pronovost said.

“Though the Times is still profitable, its margin has fallen by about 30 percent in the past five years. In 2008, revenue fell by 5.8 percent compared with the previous year, with an even sharper drop-off during the last three months of the year.”

Read more here.

The Sarasota Herald-Tribune has moved its stock and mutual fund listings to its Web site, writes executive editor Mike Connelly.

Connelly writes, “We held off as long as we could, but the recession has forced the Herald-Tribune to join many other U.S. newspapers in cutting stock listings.

“At the same time, we have expanded www.heraldtribune.com/stocks, offering a series of tools to track your portfolio, explore investing opportunities and monitor market trends.

“Starting today, the newspaper will publish a daily market summary instead of issue-by-issue stock and mutual-fund listings.

“The summary lists the 175 most widely held stocks, the 138 largest mutual funds and 26 market indices, along with interest rate and foreign exchange highlights.”

Read more here.

John Foren, the editor of the Flint Journal in Michigan, writes in response to readers who called in about the paper’s decision to cut its printed stock listings.

Foren writes, “We’ve been talking for years about reducing our stock pages, influenced by the legions who check online accounts for how their stocks and mutual funds are doing. Few newspapers run full stock pages anymore — that’s not a justification for us to make the change, too, just a reflection of the public’s changing habits.

“After sampling readers for their stock favorites, we eliminated one full daily page of financial figures and replaced it with a column of stocks of local interest.

“Last Sunday, we began running a quarter page of mutual fund information — instead of our previous two full stock pages.

“Dozens of people called and e-mailed me. A few said they liked the overall changes, which included moving our weather map to the second page of the A section. But most said they missed the stock pages.”

Read more here.

The Ann Arbor News in Michigan says it will no longer produce a daily business section.

A brief in Sunday’s paper states, “Starting today, local business coverage, led by reporters Stefanie Murray and Tina Reed, will more often land on pages A1 and A3. Items such as the daily local stocks listing and business briefs will be elsewhere in our main Local section. We no longer will produce a daily business section.

“Our entertainment coverage will be part of our regular pages, instead of the weekly Spotlight tabloid. This means you’ll find Thursday’s local previews, restaurant reviews and features inside an expanded Thursday edition. Further, you can scan complete listings for the Ann Arbor area and the rest of the state online at mlive.com/ann-arbor.

“‘These moves are part of ongoing changes that we’ve written about before,’ said Jim Knight, managing editor at The News. ‘What we do best is cover the local news in our region. It’s what makes our product unique, and we remain committed to meeting that need.’”

Read more here.

Dennis Fulton, the business editor at the Dallas Morning News, writes Friday about the paper’s decision to cut its printed stock listings, which at the beginning of the year, with the help of reader suggestions on what to keep.

Fulton writes, “In case you missed it, on Jan. 3, we discontinued most weekday national stock listings, particularly the Top 500. We kept our market indices and we kept an expanded report on Saturdays only.

“About 300 readers wrote or called to say that wasn’t good enough. Most were very understanding and helpful. It’s a business truism that successful companies listen to their customers. We did, and based on those suggestions we found ways to restore most of the stock and mutual fund listings, without using more space.

“For one thing, we learned that even in an era where stock listings are easily available on the Web, many readers find them to be especially useful in our paper.

“‘I know I can get stock prices online. I do it all the time,’ one reader said. ‘But perusing the listings is part of my morning ritual. It goes with my coffee and Post Toasties.’

“Another reader said he values the ability to scan a large number of stocks at a glance. He runs a finger down each column of stocks looking for the new 52-week low or the attractive price-earnings ratio or the best performing mutual fund in a class. He says he’s picked his best investments that way.”

Read more here.

The Des Moines Register has become the latest Gannett newspaper to cut its standalone business section.

In a letter to readers published Friday, publisher Laura Hollingsworth wrote that the Metro & Iowa section and the Business section would be combined into one section, starting Monday.

The paper will also no longer publish Saturday stock listings, but will publish some Iowa stocks of interest.

Hollingsworth writes, “I know that some of our loyal readers won’t jump up and down over these changes. But my hope is you’ll understand why we’re making them.

“What isn’t changing is our commitment to deep local coverage and stories that make a difference. We’ll continue our exclusive watchdog and public service journalism. We’ll bring expert coverage of issues related to education, health care, business and the environment.”

Read more here. Other Gannett papers that have cut their standalone business sections include the Indianapolis Star and the Tennessean in Nashville.

Tim Steller, the business editor of the Arizona Daily Star in Tucson, writes Wednesday about the paper’s first day without printed stock listings and with business news tucked into the A section instead of having its own section.

Steller writes, “We do have a list of about 50 stocks that are of heightened local interest because the company is based in Southern Arizona or has significant operations here. But the list of hundreds or thousands of stocks is gone. The sole remnant of that era will be our weekly list of mutual funds, which will shrink to half a page but remain in Saturday’s paper.

“About 50 readers have called to comment on the elimination of the Market Report page, as it was called in recent years. A large number would simply like to have the stocks they follow listed in the paper again. In general, that’s not going to happen. Stock listings in newspapers are going the way of dinosaurs and dodo birds as we focus more strictly on the work we can do best: covering local news. In the business section’s case, that means covering local business news.

“The two other main reader concerns have been commodity prices and foreign exchange listings. In particular, on commodities, readers want to know the prices of copper, oil and gold. I’m very sympathetic to the idea that we could still list a few commodity prices in the space left, and we’ll be working on that. I’m not as sure about foreign currency prices, but we will consider that, too.”

Read more here.

The Palm Springs Desert Sun is moving its business coverage to different parts of the paper, writes publisher Richard Ramhoff in Wednesday’s paper.

Ramhoff writes, “Our national business coverage, including the stock and mutual fund report, will move to our A section on weekdays, where it will be featured with our other national news coverage. Local business coverage by reporters Monica Torline and Debra Gruszecki will move to our new Valley section, which will include local news plus local features and business coverage.

“On Sunday, we launch an expanded Business section that will feature more local coverage of business news, looking at the past week and the week ahead.”

Read more here.