Publishers Re-Target Local Business News Opportunity

Author: Ken Doctor, Affiliate Analyst

Business news sections in the local US daily press used to be robust. Since local daily newspapers discovered business news coverage in the 1980s, those business news franchises served them well. Business news solidified readers’ attachments to the papers, and business-to-business advertising increased. The internet first changed that reader connection as digital stock listings made pages of tables obsolescent. Now, business news has been nationalized and globalized, allowing about a dozen top national and global news suppliers to provide direct news and data to local customers. In the past year especially, page counts in US business news sections have dwindled; some papers have stopped giving business its own section or devoted fewer pages and staff to coverage. Yet, some are finding new niches in the local business news space. This report looks at the evolving models for both new business audience creation and monetization of that audience. The report includes:

- An overview of the business news market and key players;
- Analysis of market dynamics and key trends, with specific examples of innovations that are creating a new local business news future;
- A look at monetizing business news;
- Essential actions for news publishers that want to build new local business news audiences online and use state-of-the-art web tools to monetize them highly.