If You’re Looking for Online Convergence Between Print and the Web Then Check Out the Financial Sections Where Integration Is Furthest Along. And Also Note How Print Is Dumping Stock Tables – Something That Makes the “Bean Counters” Happy, But Gives One Less Reason To Buy A Newspaper

But the FT, which is reorganizing itself under a new editor and that includes a new FT.com editor, could pride itself that Ft.com subscribers grew some 10% last year, but now The Times and The Daily Telegraph are taking direct aim there, too.

Both newspapers have announced the beginning of an integration of their print and web operations, with the Telegraph appointing a new financial editor charged with overseeing the morning business coverage of print and web, and with The Times as a start converging its personal finance print section with the online product.

And all of that follows on the announcement last month by Dow Jones that it was converging its print and online editorial and sales operations at the Wall Street Journal.

The main change for the Telegraph’s web site will be the quick posting of financial news as it is received rather than just uploading stories as they come from the print edition. The move seems a natural since the Telegraph recently hired Edward Roussel, former global managing editor of Bloomberg, as online editorial director.

The Times has appointed a former reporter and a former correspondent as joint deputy editors charged with creating personal finance coverage for newspaper and online.

When the Wall Street Journal launched its new compact Asian and European editions last September it proudly announced that it was improving the convergence between its web site and the print edition, an admirable enhancement. But one of those enhancements was to stop printing daily stock tables and instead the newspapers referred readers to the web where those prices could be found with no more than a 20 minute delay over real-time.

At the time FTM said it didn’t like that move, indeed it would be difficult for those readers without ready web access – on the plane, bus, train, in the hotel room etc. -- to get the information. And it was particularly hard on the older generation that doesn’t visit the Internet near as much as the young.

ftm background

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Be be that as it may, many US newspapers are now taking the same approach to financial data. The New York Times says that on April 4 it will stop printing the six pages of daily stock tables and instead direct readers to its web site for share prices. It also said it will improve the web site to give more company information. And readers can sign up for emails that provide closing prices and alerts.

The Los Angeles Times made a similar change last week, indeed most of the Tribune newspapers have done so, and other newspapers across the country including the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and The Denver Post have made the change.

All the newspapers make the argument about the web being the real place for information that changes by the second when the markets are open, but that’s not the real reason for making the change. Again, with the reminder that newspapers are above all businesses, what you have here is a way to save significant newsprint costs which, with newsprint at all time highs, is not insignificant. Some estimates say the New York Times will save about $10 million annually on its newsprint costs by not printing those stock tables,

In Europe, the International Herald Tribune, owned by the New York Times, still prints stock tables but management says it is reviewing the situation. Their continuing the tables sets them apart now from the compact international editions of the Wall Street Journal, but the accountants will come up with the expected newsprint cost savings. Care to take a vote which way management will decide?

And no doubt the accountants at all those other newspapers have done their homework. So what if a few hundred people complain they no longer can find the share price in print. The accountants will figure out the revenue those unhappy readers are worth (not just their subscription but their value to advertisers) and compare it with the savings from the newsprint, and the newsprint savings will win every time.

The problem is that by moving information away from the newspaper it gives readers one less reason to buy that newspaper, and with the words of Rupert Murdoch echoing that “Content is King” newspaper should be adding to their value, not throwing stuff out. Send people to the Web site to find out more information, but keep the basics in print, in this case even if it is just a share’s closing price.

The situation was summed up recently in an online chat discussion by Shirley Carswell, who is the Washington Post’s Assistant Managing Editor for planning and administration. Would the Post cut out its stock tables, she was asked?

“We are constantly looking at all aspects of the paper to see where we can make better use of valuable newsprint. The stock pages seem to have a substantial following, although I agree many people use the Web for that now,” she answered.

The Post recently announced 80 newsroom job cuts to take place via buyouts and attrition (no layoffs) over the next 12 months – about 9% of its newsroom. Publisher Boisefeuillet Jones Jr specifically mentioned increased newsprint costs as a major expense, but there was no mention for now of cutting out the stock pages.