Let’s Give Business the Coverage It Deserves

Many publications and Web content managers are trying to help their constituencies understand what is really going on in the economy. The American Society of Business Publication Editors (ASBPE) recently took a giant step in the right direction by setting up an educational foundation to raise the caliber of business journalism. As shown in this excerpt from ASBPE’s blog, the market is ready.

It’s true. If you build it, they will come. [This summer] ASBPE formally launched its tax-exempt educational foundation and the results are in: two dozen contributions from institutions and individuals. We’re well on our way to reaching our first-year goal of $30,000.

Everyone I talked to at the launch and throughout the national ASBPE conference said the same thing: a foundation dedicated to ending the stature gap between b2b and the consumer press in our university journalism programs is long overdue. Our plan to endow the country’s first b2b journalism chair at one of our country’s top universities and to offer generous scholarships to students committed to b2b journalism resonated more than I expected….

Of course, the foundation isn’t just about curriculum equality in our schools; it’s about helping editors today master the new-media skills they’ll need tomorrow to stay in the driver’s seat as content increasingly is delivered on platforms other than print….

What’s clear is that editors and their publishers aren’t just agreeing to the need for the ASBPE Foundation; they’re committing themselves to making it happen. Questex Media in Cleveland and CFO magazine in Boston (part of The Economist Group), Access Intelligence of Rockville, Md., and the BNA in Washington, D.C. — these are just a few of the institutions that stepped up as founding donors. My employer, the publications group of the National Association of REALTORS®, has also donated, along with Adobe (which made an in-kind donation) and the Stephen Barr family (the sponsors of ASBPE’s Stephen Barr award for exceptional work by b2b journalists), among others.

Particularly inspiring, though, is the level of the individual donations … from professionals in our industry from every region of the country….

If you’d like to make a tax-deductible donation, you may do so online.