The Medford Mail Tribune announced that beginning Wednesday, it will no longer carry printed stock listings in its business section.

A story stated, “The decision was made as part of an evaluation of the newspaper’s content, said Bob Hunter, editor of the newspaper.

“‘In the surveys we’ve done and information we’ve gathered from readers, the stock listings have always come out near the bottom of the list,’ Hunter said. ‘With updated information on the Web available 24 hours a day, the number of people who use the newspaper to track their stocks has fallen to the point that it doesn’t make sense for us to dedicate a large amount of space to it.’

“The paper has run a half-page of stocks Tuesdays through Fridays and two full pages on Sundays. The changes also will result in dropping the Motley Fool feature in Sunday’s business section. Hunter noted many newspapers around the country have dropped stock listings in recent years as more readers get their investment information on the Web.”

Read more here.

The St. Catharines Standard newspaper announced Friday that it will cut its printed stock listings and mutual funds at the beginning of 2009.

The paper stated, “While we understand that some of our readers still rely on these listings, the large majority of our readers now go online for stock and mutual fund values.

“Newspapers across Canada, including major financial newspapers, have disblishing these lists over the past several years. The Standard is one of the last newspapers to follow suit.

“The decision ref lects both the changing habits of our readers and the difficult business climate brought about by the current economic downturn.”

Read more here.

The Bay City Times newspaper in Michigan announced that it is cutting its dedicated business page during the week and its stock listings in the Saturday paper.

John Hiner, the paper’s editor, writes, “Readers will notice changes to the printed newspaper, beginning today, that reflect our need to control costs. Most local news content will remain intact, but space reductions mean we are dropping the following:

“A dedicated Business page in weekday papers, including local stocks and markets; the daily horoscope and one of two daily TV grids; Young Times on Monday and the Mini-Page on Tuesday; stock listings on Saturday.

“Some local content, such as the Prep Page and Environment Page, both on Thursday, will be reformatted to fit available space.

“Some features you’ve come to expect will be available exclusively online at www.mlive.com/bctimes; in those instances, we’ll provide clear directions in the printed paper to such content.”

Read more here. Bay City is north of Saginaw and Flint.

The Honolulu Star-Bulletin is cutting its standalone business section during the week, but adding pages to its Sunday business section, editor Frank Bridgewater writes in the Sinday paper.

Bridgewater writes, “A new section, Hawaii, will carry local news. Most of what has been on page 2 will move to page 2 of the Hawaii section. Obituaries also will run in this section. The Business section will become part of the Hawaii section, anchoring the last several pages. There will be one page of stock and mutual fund prices, instead of two, reflecting the move by investors to the Internet for market quotes. You can always find quotes for Hawaii stocks and mutual funds and all other stocks at starbulletin.com/business.”

Later, he adds, “Also, with the markets’ turmoil commanding so much attention, we are adding two pages of analysis, lists and highlights to our Sunday Business section – one page on stocks and one on mutual funds. Today they are pages 8 and 9 in Business.”

Read more here.

Other newspapers that have cut their standalone business section include the Boston Globe, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Seattle Times, Chicago Tribune, Orange County Register, St. Petersburg Times, Tampa Tribune, The (Raleigh) News & Observer, Denver Post, Cincinnati Enquirer, Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch, Reno (Nev.) Gazette-Journal, Winston-Salem (N.C.) Journal, Monterey (Calif.) Herald, Palm Beach Post and Akron (Ohio) Beacon-Journal.

Adam Lowenstein, the business editor at Florida Today, writes Sunday that the business news will now appear in the back of the sports section, beginning this week.

The Sunday section will continue as a standalone section.

Lowenstein writes, “There are a few smaller changes in Business, too.

“Our Monday financial column will allow readers to submit questions. You can do that by writing us at business@floridatoday.com with ‘finance question’ in the subject line.

“Tuesday through Friday on the stocks page, we’ve eliminated the Industry Watch portion and the Story Stocks graphic.

“Many of the stocks are already found in our Top 250 stocks listing, or in story content on the Business cover.”

Read more here.

The Knoxville News Sentinel, which earlier this month cut all of its printed stock listings, is now bringing back its Saturday stock and mutual fund listings in the paper.

It will also expand its short daily list of stocks to include some widely held and heavily traded stocks.

Jack McElroy, the paper’s editor, writes Sunday that the changes were the result of reader complaints.

He writes, “The reaction from readers has been vociferous, which points to another great thing about our business: People are passionate about what we produce.

“‘You are messing with the paper until it has become not a favorite pastime of mine anymore!’ complained one subscriber.

“We don’t want that to happen, so in the next week or so, we’ll make adjustments so that the News Sentinel remains a favorite pastime.”

Read more here.

Jack McElroy, the editor of the Knoxville News Sentinel, responds Sunday to complaints from readers about recent changes in the paper, including the cutting of printed stock listings, and tells them that the paper is keeping its standalone business section.

McElroy writes, “Many readers enjoyed the convenience of the printed stock listings. But we know that fewer people have been using the tables and more have been turning to the array of information online.

“Across the country, many newspapers, including The New York Times, have eliminated their stock tables, and standalone business sections have vanished from papers such as The Orange County Register, The Denver Post, The Columbus Dispatch and The Winston-Salem Journal.

“We decided to keep a separate Business section because of the importance we place on local business news, but we felt we could no longer devote two pages a day to stock listings.”

Read more here.

The Virginian-Pilot newspaper plans to cut its standalone business section and its printed stock listings every day but Sunday, according to a story in Saturday’s paper.

Philip Walzer writes, “Local business stories will appear in the front and Hampton Roads sections, he said, and the front section will include a ‘market page’ Tuesday through Saturday. Stock listings will appear on The Pilot’s Web site, Jones said.

“‘The paper will be a little smaller,’ Finley said. ‘I think readers will notice. We will keep the quality of the journalism as high as possible. There will just be less of it in the daily Pilot.’

“The Pilot, Jones said, will remain ‘the most thorough source of news, information and advertising in the marketplace.’ The newspaper’s owner, Landmark Media Enterprises LLC, continues to negotiate a sale of the newspaper. A buyer is trying to get financing, Jones said. The potential sale, he said, did not influence the cost-saving measures. The Pilot also is expanding ways to generate revenue, Jones said. In October, it began printing front-page advertisements.”

Read more here.

Bill Brewer, the business editor of the Knoxville News Sentinel, writes about the paper’s decision to cut its printed stock and mutual fund listings and move that data online.

Brewer writes, “Eliminating the stock listings is a matter of economics, and a reflection of the increased importance the Internet is playing in our business, as in so many others.

“The News Sentinel’s Business staff has been expanding its Web presence for months. We have launched business-related blogs written by our reporters. We have created a Web site dedicated to local business news with national and international coverage included. We’ve been breaking business news as it happens, in real time, on Knoxvillebiz.com. We are sending out free daily e-mail messages with business news updates to anyone who wants to receive them, and delivering alerts via e-mail or cell phone text when important news is unfolding.

“At the same time, we remain committed to producing the best daily and Sunday Business sections and Business Journal in the region.

“Although the stock and mutual fund lists are now online, we will continue to have a Money & Markets page in the Business section that will give you daily snapshots of interest rates, commodities, foreign exchange, stock market and mutual fund performance and our popular stocks of local interest listing.”

Read more here.

The Wall Street Journal announced Monday that it’s cutting its printed stock and mutual fund listings.

The Journal is cutting its stock listings during the week to 1,000 from 1,500, and its mutual fund listings during the week and Saturday will be cut to 250 from 500 during the week and 2,000 on Saturday. Stock listings on Saturday will be cut to 1,000 fromn 4,000.

The Journal stated, “Starting today, several data tables, including stock lists, will be reduced in length and appear more-fully in the Online Journal.

“In one case — stock tables on Saturday — data are being added in print to stocks still listed.

“The goal is to ensure that the finite amount of pages are used for the most-relevant news as more subscribers access data online.”

Read more here.