Structure a Strategy for Reduction in Stock Listings

By Reynolds Center Staff
October 20, 2004 04:09 PM

Resistance to change in newspaper content stems from two major groups -- readers and management. If your publication is considering scaling back the number of stock listings, it is crucial to have a game plan in place to prepare for numerous questions.

Bill Donnellon of The Record in Hackensack, N.J., learned this first-hand when he decided to implement this change, as profiled recently on BusinessJournalism.org.

To offer editors and reporters additional issues to consider, Web Managing Editor Kevin Sweeney enlisted the expertise of Phil Nesbitt. A newspaper journalist for 34 years, Nesbitt is a former associate director of the American Press Institute and a past president of the Society for News Design.

BusinessJournalism.org: Although there is no single strategy for all papers, is there an effective formula business editors or reporters can think of when reducing their stock tables?

Nesbitt: The most effective way to do this that I have discovered is to stick a pin in a map at your location and measure out 50 to 100 miles for metro areas or 100 to 200 miles for rural areas. Do an inventory of firms that are publicly traded within the circle -- that becomes the basis for the truncated stock listings.

Conduct in-paper surveys to let readers think they are part of the process. Add in "favorite" stocks from this survey, and you are almost there. The last thing is the addition of the top 10 to 20 stocks in the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the NASDAQ.

BusinessJournalism.org: How do they determine what other company stocks might be a priority among your readership?

Nesbitt: Be aware of the major publicly traded companies that have roots or do business in your area. More than likely, local readers' 401(k) and pension plans are associated with these companies, so they are important stocks to consider. Let readers know that you are open to their comments, and don't dismiss a stock out of hand.

BusinessJournalism.org: What are some likely obstacles they may encounter? Are there methods to avoid such obstacles?

Nesbitt: The obstacle is an aversion to change. Many readers will have a "favorite" stock that they follow and will get fired up if it disappears. It doesn't matter how many other stocks might migrate away from the print product, this is the one that they want to track.

Make clear the rationale for selecting the stocks you do run and, if you are planning on phasing them out altogether, be up front and let the readers know the planned date of their departure.

BusinessJournalism.org: How do they approach management to implement this change and, in effect, take away what has likely been a staple for decades?

Nesbitt: Inform, inform, inform. Make sure that the full tables are available in some other form. It seems that with a decent amount of preparation that lets readers know what is happening and going to happen, the response is generally good. As long as the paper lets the readers know that the listings aren't going away, but instead can be found on the paper's Web site (or a third-party site in some cases), readers can be accepting.

You need to re-direct readers in a major way for about two weeks. After that, a small note giving the Web address for the tables is sufficient.

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Copyright © 2008 Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism