Business news is the news about commercial activities and the resulting changes in societies. It is a major part of journalism and appears in most newspapers, magazines, radio and television-news shows. The news of a company’s success or failure is a primary focus of business news, but it can also include coverage of governmental policies and economic trends.
Thousands of trade magazines cover the day-to-day issues of businesses operating in specific industries. These industry-specific publications offer information that is more in depth than is found in the mass media press, and they provide a platform for many companies to market their products or services.
State business magazines, frequently owned by larger regional or national news organizations, often concentrate on features and regular in-depth articles about their states’ economies. Despite their small size, these periodicals are popular among local business people who want to build public relations through coverage of their company’s achievements and impact on the community.
The business press covers the entire range of commercial activity and has a history that is rich in diversity. Early coastal colonial newspapers covered business news by printing arrival days and cargo manifests from ships docking at wharves. As the number of businesses and the nation grew, the first trade and national business press journals emerged to report on the country’s burgeoning economy.
Some business news is delivered directly from the companies themselves, such as a press release or a business news column in a newspaper. This may be as simple as a press release about the completion of a job or as complicated as an announcement about an acquisition.
Other businesses deliver news to the general public through their web sites, social media accounts, newsletters or blogs. These business news outlets provide information on the latest developments in a company’s industry, including the status of a new product line or an expansion into a different industry.
Whether it’s a news release about a company’s progress, a story about a new product line or an article about the economic situation in a particular industry, business news can have a significant impact on the public’s perception of a particular company and its potential future.
While the majority of business news is published by traditional newspapers, most business journalists also work in digital publishing. Electronic publishers of business news include many of the big daily and weekly newspapers and the so-called “Big Three” national periodicals (Business Week, Forbes, and Fortune).
The digital world has also changed the nature of business journalism in ways that may be surprising to some readers. For instance, many newspapers now publish substantial Web sites that feature all or most of their print product’s content, while some have a separate business section that only appears in their Internet editions.
These digital business journalism outlets compete with each other for traffic and advertising dollars, as well as for the attention of business news junkies. Some of these sites even broadcast live business news reports.