At the end of 2005, I posted on CNBC adding full company names to its broadcast ticker -- a move that took largely useless information and made it useful to the general public.
In that post, I also talked about another anachronism -- newspaper stock tables.
When was the last time you looked up a stock quote in a newspaper?
I’d be surprised if 1 in 100 can remember. However, newspapers continue to print these tables at a tremendous cost — newsprint accounts for a very large percentage of total expense to newspaper companies. Perhaps it’s no surprise, then, that newspapers are struggling so badly.
Out of date almost as soon as they hit the streets each day, these tables have somehow managed to stick around years after being made obsolete by online stock quotes, charts and other timely, interactive information.
Well, The New York Times has caught on. According to a story in today's Times, the newspaper on April 4 will cease printing stock tables in the daily paper Tuesday-Saturday, offering financial-market information on its Web site instead.
In the story, the Times cited the lead of others:
On Monday, The Los Angeles Times announced that it would condense its tables to a one-page listing of the 1,300 most heavily traded stocks and a list of companies based in Southern California.
In January, The Chicago Tribune eliminated its tables from Tuesdays through Fridays, substituting a condensed list of stocks, mutual funds, heavily traded stocks and companies of local interest. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution stopped running its complete stock tables this month.
Slowly, it seems, the newspaper industry is recognizing that its future lies not in its antiquated distribution mechanism -- newsprint and ink -- but in the ability to gather and process information, whether that is the work of reporters or those who keep us informed with up-to-date financial information.
Where this all will lead is an open question. But for now, we know at least that The New York Times will be a little lighter -- which will be nice when it comes time to lug out the week's newspapers for recycling.
