Adios, Consumer Beat?

Published Jan 31 2008, 08:43 PM by Adam Reilly

At least one DQM reader is bummed out about the disappearance of the Globe's Consumer Beat column, which shut down when Bruce Mohl decamped to edit CommonWealth:

Voices of consumer advocacy are rapidly declining in the Bay State. With the occasional exception of some of Jay Fitzgerald's business pieces at the Herald, there's very little coverage at the major dailies of the ins and outs of how issues like auto insurance deregulation, health insurance reform, the secondary ticket market, et. al., affect the individual customers. Mohl's column may have been the last major one left. Will it continue, or has that ship sailed?

From what Globe business editor Shirley Leung tells me, I'd say the answer is: don't hold your breath waiting for the column's return.

"I can't discuss staffing details, but will say that Bruce Mohl was a terrific Consumer Beat reporter and we miss him," Leung says. " Nonetheless, we in the business section throughout the paper continue to do consumer coverage. Look at today's paper, where we discuss what the Fed rate cut means for readers. And metro reporter Keith O'Brien recently did a story on Super Bowl ticket prices, a subject near and dear to Bruce's heart. So we continue to cover consumer issues."

After parsing Leung's comments, and then looking at the Consumer Beat archives, one thing stands out. While the first story Leung cites deals with a tremendously important subject, it's most useful for people who'll be engaging in major financial transactions, like buying a house or car. The second story, meanwhile, discusses an investment that precious few of us can make.

Both represent a contrast with Mohl's work, which routinely discussed how anyone--including people living paycheck to paycheck--could be a savvier consumer. Let's hope the Globe keeps providing that, too.

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5 Comments

Mark said:

It doesn't surprise me. For years, the two things I read first in the Sunday Globe were Consumer Beat and Starts & Stops. Now they too are gone. These are the kind of features that make habitual readers, and they seem to be the easiest things to cut. They wonder why readership declines. I suppose next it'll be movie reviewers and op-ed columnists, then we'll have nothing left to read about but fires and accidents.

January 31, 2008 9:15 PM
Skip said:

Globe needs to remember that going upmarket, a la the Times, won't work in a market the size of Boston. Also, those students are mostly going home in a few years. Start writing for 495 inward and stop with cocktail party chatter for Dover and Duxbury. Mohl was great and was emblematic of what the Globe is losing. They need to start writing for the readers instead of using the paper as their book auditions.

February 1, 2008 4:55 PM
Adam said:

Mark, I bring good news--Starts & Stops is back:

www.universalhub.com/.../12536

February 1, 2008 5:00 PM
jvwalt said:

So... Super Bowl tickets are consumer news??? I guess anytime the Globe reports on anything that might be purchased, it's consumer news. Food, cars, the arts... political corruption. (Finneran for sale! Is he a good buy? We'll tell you... in the Globe!)

For that matter, just about all the advertising is "consumer news." So stop whining: the Globe is just chock full of consumer news.

February 3, 2008 3:16 AM