Where is my Sunday Business section?
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April 15, 2007
As a practitioner of real estate, I try to keep in touch with all the news about the local market, what's selling where, what's going where, tidbits of sage advice (when I can find it) and the local economy. The Washington Post SATURDAY REAL ESTATE section is huge and contains many articles of interest, good consumer advice columns such as Robert (Bob) Bruss' and is chock full of advertisements from the home building community. It is consumer focused. This is where I spend time reading about local real estate.Sunday, on the other hand, was my day of rest from reading real estate news. Sunday was my day to read the BUSINESS section about, well...business: the local economy, the business of government and government contractors, our robust bio-tech industries, our technology industries, who's doing what to who and who's in and who's out. If something significant was happening to companies that happen to be in the real estate and related industries, then that was business news too.
But, starting today, Sunday, April 15th the Post BUSINESS section started a new subsection called SUNDAY REAL ESTATE (see Editor's Note). The BUSINESS section this morning is 14 pages:
- Five pages are devoted to weekly stock tables. Appropriate.
- One page is devoted to "Working" including the weekly column about life at work and "Professional Opportunities" with the government and industry. These are usually executive level positions. As an ex-executive, I find these interesting and sometimes enticing.
- Four and one half pages are devoted to local business news and personal finance columns.
- The remaining three and one half pages are SUNDAY REAL ESTATE.
- Almost one half page devoted to an article about the Glut of New Homes on the market. OK, business news. I found it interesting and informative; like the statistic that in the fourth quarter of 2006 there were over 40,000 new homes on the market in the greater Washington region. Wow. I'm not sure I have seen this data point before. Explains a ton about the local sluggishness in the re-sale sector.
- Again, nearly one half page devoted to Price Points. And what do you suppose the feature article is about? KITCHEN SINKS. All about KITCHEN SINKS. The first sentence is "You need a kitchen sink..." Followed with different models, styles, cost and where to purchase.
- Two half columns including a short real estate glossary, "Life of a Kitchen" and a summary of a weekly online chat.
- The remaining space, two and one-half pages, are devoted to builder ads
A better explanation is that the traditional news media has seen declining ad revenue. I see this as just another strategy to boost ad revenue. And, they have pimped my SUNDAY BUSINESS section to achieve that goal. Only 14% of what is printed in three and one half pages of SUNDAY REAL ESTATE is worthy of business news. The rest is junk.
Warren Buffet, the greatest investor and astute business person of all time, owns a piece of the Post and sits on their board. Did anyone ask Warren if this was a good idea? I didn't think so.
PLEASE! Give our real SUNDAY BUSINESS back to us.
PS: This inaugural edition of SUNDAY REAL ESTATE will go in the pile I use to start the fire in my fireplace. It doesn't deserve to be recycled. WARNING: Clicking any of the links above will annoy you as it does me with the potential of FULL SCREEN pop-up ads. Be sure to turn your pop-up blocker on before exploring the articles.
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