2007 News: The decline and fall of consumer reporting

By Shari Feld

Forty-one years after Ralph Nader published "Unsafe at any Speed" and made coverage of consumer issues popular, consumer reporting is dwindling in mainstream media, argue some experts.

Certain well-established consumer magazines, such as Consumer Reports, continue to thrive, but some journalists say newspapers fail in their role to serve consumers. Others say consumer reporting is not fading but rather is morphing to fit a new generation of consumers and adjusting to accommodate shrinking newspaper funds.

Many journalists blame budget cuts. Some blame a fear of angering advertisers, but others discount that argument.

Consumer reporting came into the public spotlight in January when Consumer Reports retracted a story about the safety of child car seats. An outside research firm conducted the magazine's testing, which was later refuted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. On Feb. 6, the magazine named two independent experts to review its report. Some fear the event will have a further chilling effect on consumer reporting.

While consumer reporting continues to redefine itself in the 21st century, most describe consumer reporting as journalism that helps the public make more well-informed decisions with regards to the marketplace, journalism that helps consumer understand how things affect them or journalism that fights on behalf of the consumer.

Journalists disagree about whether there is a need for consumer reporters in the newsroom. Many publications have cut the position altogether. Some have integrated the concept into other beats. But the circulation of Consumer Reports and its Web site subscription base, along with the immense influence of consumer journalism on company images and sales, is telling.

About 4.2 million people subscribe to the magazine, said Kim Kleman, deputy editorial director for Consumer Reports. And with more than 2 million web subscribers, Consumer Reports is the largest paid subscriber Web site in the world.

“That tells us that people really want this information and trust it,” she said. “There’s a real disconnect between what consumers need and what newspapers are or are not providing.”

 

 

Tips vs. hard-hitting stories

Old-fashioned consumer reporting has been replaced by tips to consumers, said Trudy Lieberman, contributing editor of Columbia Journalism Review and director of the Center for Consumer Health Choices at Consumers Union. This advice, for the most part, falls into three categories: useless information, advice that does not really answer any pertinent question and recommendations to shop around before making a decision.

“The public wants hard-hitting stuff, but no one is doing that now,” Lieberman said. “Media outlets just didn’t want to lose advertisers. The profit imperative became so much more important that they didn’t want to do anything to jeopardize that.”

Advice articles are poor substitutes for true consumer reporting, she said.

“The world is much more complicated than a few tips,” Lieberman said.

Media, she said, should be reporting more about how issues affect people’s wallets — bad provisions in credit contracts, banking practices and automobile reparations, to name a few.

The Wall Street Journal was the only publication Lieberman said was doing a decent job of consumer reporting.

 

Walt Mossberg, personal technology columnist for The Journal, said his publication has increased its consumer-focused reporting during the past 15 years. The national newspaper has bulked up consumer reviews and advice from columnists, he said, and he views the shift positively.

Mossberg also noted an increase in traditional consumer reporting, such as articles about how drug companies overcharge consumers. And whenever there is a major business or economics development, he said, a reporter writes a complementary story about the resulting consumer issues that may arise for one of the newspaper’s newer sections.

“We haven’t given up writing the business stories, but we’ve added these consumer stories and reviews,” Mossberg said.

The paper’s “Business of Life” coverage includes the Personal Journal section, which launched in 2002 and prints Tuesday through Thursday, Friday’s Weekend Journal section, which started in 1998, and the “Pursuits” section, which prints on Saturday in the Weekend Edition, which began in 2005. The initiative aims to help consumers manage daily spending decisions and personal finances.

“A classic part of consumer reporting is always giving the consumer some ammunition to deal with his or her problem,” Kleman said.

It can be anything from what consumers should look for when shopping for toasters to what they should do if they do not have health insurance, Kleman said. Consumer reporting also helps advocate for the consumer and interpret troubles in the marketplace.

“It’s more than just exposing a problem,” Kleman said. “It’s really giving people some tools to make their lives better.”

One this is for sure: the face of consumer reporting is much different than it was 15 or 20 years ago.

 

A far cry from the olden days

At least 50 full-time consumer reporters and about 25 newspaper columnists in 1970 devoted their careers to helping consumers solve problems, according to Sales Management magazine, Lieberman reported in a 1994 CJR article.

Now? Not so much. Lieberman said in an interview that the decline in solid consumer reporting she wrote about in 1994 has continued its downward trend since then.“As there is consolidation in the media, the consumer reporter is not one of the people they keep until the end,” Kleman said. The position is considered a luxury in most newsrooms.

“It’s a big investment in staff and money in investigating things, which is why that’s one of the first things cut,” she said.

Five years ago, 400 reporters worked for The (San Jose) Mercury News, said Matt Nauman, the newspaper’s auto editor. Now the publication only employs 275 reporters.

“When you lose one-third of your staff, you’re going to cut back everywhere.”

But to answers readers’ consumer questions, The News has kept its Action Line column, similar to the type Lieberman feared was leaving media outlets.

The position for a consumer affairs reporter, however, has come and gone at the newspaper, Nauman said. Additionally, the work of a consumer reporter is not the most glamorous job, Kleman said, and is arduous. Not to mention, the information is not sexy — there are no celebrities involved.

Some publications are making consumer reporting a staple of their business sections.

John Nagy, business editor of The News & Record in Greensboro, N.C., said it is a mainstream newspaper’s responsibility to answer “What does it mean to me?” for consumers in business articles. Its business section, which is called Money, is one of the few in the country with a consumer focus.

“If you are turning to a mainstream general circulation family-oriented newspaper for your in-depth financial advice, you’re looking in the wrong place,” he said.

Avid business readers and traders should consult business publications, such as The Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times or business journals. Nagy said he wants the News & Record to focus on news applicable to the average consumer. The newspaper mainly covers topics pertinent to the local economy, such as Wal-Mart because so many people shop there.

That does not mean that the News & Record ignores investigative business reporting, though. Those articles just are more likely to appear on A1 or B1 than buried in the business section.

Kleman holds a different opinion. She said consumer journalism has a place in all areas, including business.
“It’s not a great story unless you get the consumers’ vantage point in there,” Kleman said.

If, for example, a business reporter is writing about a merger, the effects on the consumer should be included in the article, she said.

“Given the fact that fewer newsrooms have dedicated consumer reporters, that means that all reporters need to take up that (responsibility),” she said.

 

Shari Feld is a business journalism student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Posted Feb. 16, 2007