THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, January 29, 1995 TAG: 9501280192
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SERIES: A NOTE TO READERS
This is the first in a series of occasional columns by Joe Coccaro,
business editor for The Virginian-Pilot and The Ledger-Star. Give him
a call at 446-2359.
SOURCE: Joe Coccaro
LENGTH: Medium: 69 lines
A reader called with a complaint. She had questions about the IRS and wanted to know why The Virginian-Pilot and The Ledger-Star hadn't run a story explaining recent changes in income tax refund policies. She was shocked to learn of them from her accountant, long after the fact.
Her newspaper, she thought, let her down.
``I'm sorry, but we did run something a week ago,'' I explained. ``We had a cover story in Business Weekly about tax services and some of the changes.''
``Why didn't you put the story in the regular paper where regular people can see it?'' she replied. ``I always thought the business pages are for corporations.''
The woman's comments, although innocent, packed some sting. Business news editors and reporters at the newspapers strive to connect with all readers, not just business chiefs and stockbrokers. Yes, we do a fair number of corporate earnings stories laden with dollar signs. And business remains our primary focus.
But to us, business is a broad umbrella.
Jobs, your jobs, fall into the business news category: the places you shop; where you bank; how you save and spend money; the cost of borrowing; gas and coffee prices; new gadgets; who's going broke or getting rich.
Stocks, bonds and so-called corporate news remain integral to our coverage. Why? Because corporate types are our readers, too. They look to the Pilot and Ledger for information about the economy, their competitors and customers.
If these are the only types of business stories we're perceived as doing, then we must do better communicating our journalistic diversity. We may also need to rethink some things. We've been doing lots of that over the past 12 months.
Back in June, the newspaper made a commitment to expand the business report by launching a free-standing BusinessNews section Tuesday through Saturday. We've now have more space and better exposure.
The new section provided room to provide breaking news and stock listings. When it comes to stocks, too much is never enough for many of our loyal readers.
We have been working to improve the stock pages. Our most recent effort came Saturday. We revamped the end-of-the-week market reports to make them easier to read.
We're doing some retooling for noninvestors, too.
Starting Monday, our Business Weekly magazine gets a face lift. We've redesigned the magazine into sections: small business, technology, money and workplace. Hopefully, the changes will make it more accessible - and relevant.
Let's not forget Sunday Business. Lots of you crave comprehensive, probing business articles that go deep, but don't have time for them during the week. We're betting that you do on Sunday.
The most visible symbol of our endeavors to attract readers is a tiny fella named Dilbert. Starting this week, he speaks to Hampton Roads through a comic strip appearing Monday through Saturday - in the business pages.
The Dilbert strip pokes fun at bosses, workers and corporations with taste and irreverence. It shows that business news has a sense of humor, too.
We hope Dilbert helps make the daily and weekly business news sections feel more like part of the regular paper. Hopefully, Dilbert will help us bring a smile to the faces of both regular readers - and corporate chiefs. by CNB