The Star’s Business pages will take a new approach to stock and mutual-fund listings starting Tuesday.
The NYSE, NASDAQ and AMEX exchanges will be combined into one table and will include stocks that Star readers suggest. A list of widely held mutual funds will run weekdays, with a fuller list that includes readers suggestions on Saturdays.
“We’ve been considering reducing our daily market report for more than a year. Fewer and fewer people use the newspaper to check stock prices and other market data, so it has become an inefficient way to use space,” e-mailed Business editor Tim Steller.
“At the same time, we’ve been trying to reduce the number of news-service stories we run and increase the local content in our section.
“So, when we brought those two factors together with the need to cut some costs, it became apparent now would be a good time to make some big changes in Business.”
Here’s what readers can expect:
● The daily market report will be consolidated into one page Tuesdays through Fridays. It will include a summary of the previous day’s activity, a preview of the day’s events and a combined stock table featuring hundreds of stocks tracked by readers.
● The Saturday report will be the same as weekdays, but with a full-page list of readers’ mutual funds.
● The columnist lineup will change. Chuck Jaffe’s mutual-fund column moves from Saturdays to Fridays. Kenneth Harney’s real-estate column switches from Sundays in At Home to Saturdays in Business. Figuratively Speaking, Fridays in Business, has been discontinued.
● The Business front page will include two new indicators: the futures price of oil and copper. Oil because it underlies so much of our economy and everyday life, and copper because it is a regionally important commodity, mined around Tucson, Southern Arizona and northern Sonora.
● Business’ Web site, (www.azstarnet.com/business) will be updated throughout the day. Its Clocking In blog will be updated daily, and a daily e-newsletter is planned.
● A half-page feature on autos, called Wheels, will run every Saturday.
If you have questions, suggestions or comments, please call or e-mail me, not Steller. If there’s a stock or mutual fund that you would like added, I’m the point person for that as well, for now.
In Accent, the Inside Entertainment page goes away. Entertainment news will continue to run in the section; the comic “Brevity” has been discontinued, and Mary Worth concludes this Saturday, June 16.
