Taking stock of the stocks
On Wednesday, we are joining the growing list of newspapers that is eliminating or abbreviating its stock listings. At the same time -- actually, sooner because you can do it right now -- we're introducing a new online tool to help you browse and manage your stocks.
We expect this will dismay some of our older readers, but we think that number is dwindling and that most people use the available information online. When we were pondering this decision, we consulted several financial brokers. They asked us the same thing: what took you so long? With this move, we papers in New York, L.A., Chicago and Denver, among others, in curtailing daily listings.
In place of the stock listings, we are providing a daily half-page summary of market activity, including charts tracking the Dow Jones Industrials, Nasdaq and the Standard & Poor's 500 indices. That summary also will include an expanded list of stocks of local interest.
The new online tool will allow you to customize your holdings, check stocks in real time, calculate investments and obtain detailed information about stock performance, among other things.
We don't want this change to overshadow everything else we've done to improve the paper, although it will to some. The fact is the daily newspapers is an excellent source of local information, local advertising and entertainment options. Keeping track of your stocks? Not so much anymore.
Comments (3)
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Has ANYONE called to complain about the 'missing' stock section? BTW, my husband says that with all the added white space, there's room for Gil Thorp.
Posted on April 19, 2006 5:59 PM
Send him to the Gil Thorp web site!
Yes, we've gotten more than 100 calls today about the stocks. Pretty much what we expected. There are still a lot of people out there who don't own computers.
Posted on April 19, 2006 6:02 PM
He said, "If I can go to that web site for Gil Thorpe, I can go to AP and CNN for my news. I can bring my laptop to breakfast instead of reading the paper." I shrugged but nodded.
Noto bene: he pays the bills.
Posted on April 21, 2006 5:51 PM