Business
News and Analysis
By Peter Haapaniemi
ecause they can be updated and displayed
dynamically, Web sites provide an excellent vehicle
for delivering business news. Of course, corporations
provide business news on their Web sites, and
newswire services such as the Excite
News Channel can keep you
up-to-date on developments in a variety of
customizable news categories. But the most useful
sites are those that go beyond simple news reporting
to offer analysis and insight into what's happening
in the world of business.




Part of
CNN
Interactive, CNNfn offers complete and far-reaching business
and financial news. The home page starts with a
handful of headlines from the day's most significant
business developments; a click takes you to the full
article. A tickertape across the top of the page
displays late-breaking headlines. When you're ready
to dig deeper, you can browse by department. Markets offers the day's top financial headlines
along with up-to-the-minute quotes for U.S. and world
stock markets, currencies, interest rates, and
commodities. Hot
Stories is home to a range
of daily news and includes sections such as Deals, which
details current mergers and acquisitions, and Washington Unwrapped, where you'll find the latest on the
political front. Overall, the site offers a wealth of
refreshingly well-organized, current, on-target
coverage that lets you stay in touch with a
fast-changing business world.




The Wall
Street Journal has
made itself the daily newspaper of business, and it
seems to be staking the same claim on the Web. For
$49 a year ($29 if you're a print subscriber) you can
read the latest global business news -- updated 24
hours a day -- in the publication's familiar format
of Front Section, Marketplace, and Money. In
addition, the site offers a Sports section -- which
may seem irrelevant until you look at the players'
salaries and the advertising dollars involved. But
the strength of this site is its financial coverage.
You'll find everything from stock and bond market
resources to commodities, interest rate, and currency
data. In all, more than 100,000 pages of information
are available -- and paid subscribers also get
complete access to Barron's and SmartMoney online. To make sense of it all, consider Personal Journal,
a service that lets you create a customized
"section" of the journal that presents news
and tracks stocks based on your interests.




The
New York Times offers
more general news than business news, but there is
much here to make it worthwhile for executives. The
site provides several ways to access stories -- a Front Page that
provides a clickable, graphic map of headlines; Late News Updates
that are refreshed as needed; and Breaking News,
with updates every 10 minutes from the Associated
Press. The Business section
includes the full text of major articles from the
morning print edition, along with real-time quotes and data on financial
markets. Finally, check out
"CyberTimes,"
a daily Web-exclusive section with columns and
reports on the Internet and computers -- two subjects
that have become intertwined with business.



Unlike
many publications, which offer only a sampling of
their print articles online, BusinessWeek provides the full text of every weekly
issue, including articles from the magazine's
European and Asian editions. The complete text
remains online for only one week, but an extensive archive lets you
access several years' worth of selected articles;
some are available for free, while others carry a
nominal fee. Timely news is available in a Daily Briefing
section, which also lets you weigh in with your
opinions via Flash Surveys.
This content is complemented by special areas such as
Company of the Week
and Quotes and Portfolios, "a tool chest for investors."
Finally, BW Plus! includes
sections such as Best Business Schools, Women and
Business, the Computer Room, and Business Books,
which features reviews and sample chapters of notable
business books.


The Web
site of the Financial Times is an enhanced version of the well-known
U.K. business newspaper that offers a range of
concise stories. For overviews, see News Update, which
offers the latest headlines, and FT in Brief, which
summarizes articles in the current issue and includes
links to the full stories. World News divides
articles by geographic region, while Themes &
Topics organizes articles by subjects such as economics and technology. You'll
find opinion in FT.comment, which
contains columns and editorials, and statistics
galore in Companies & Markets. While the site
tends to be quite slow, it delivers a large volume of
information with a global view not found in many
other sites. 


Fortune's news coverage -- which appears in the Business Report --
tends to be cursory. But news is secondary to the
analysis and personality found in articles taken from
the magazine's current print issue and organized in
departments such as Features, Columnists, Smart
Managing, and Digital Watch, which focuses on
technology. The site can be slow and awkward to
navigate -- at times you wish you were reading the
print issue, where it doesn't take a minute to turn
the page. But there are things here you won't find on
the newsstand. For example, departments include
useful lists of links to related resources on the
Web, and an online archive lets you search back
issues. The site is rounded out with special reports
such as a Corporate Reputation Survey, a Technology Buyer's Guide, and a collection of stories on the Fortune 500 listings.


The Forbes "Digital Tool" -- the online
version of the well-known Capitalist Tool -- provides
selections from the current print issue as well as
daily updates of business stories. Rather than
covering breaking news, however, the site looks at a
specific subject area each day. On Monday you'll find
Technology, on
Tuesday, Investing, and so
on through Media & Politics, International, Entertainment, and
Cool, where you'll
find product guides and other lifestyle features.
Special items round out the site, such as lists of
the 400 richest people in America and the 40 wealthiest entertainers in the world. And don't miss Forbes
ASAP, a supplemental
technology-focused publication.


The
online home of the Washington
Post is based on the
daily print edition. It's updated throughout the day
with feeds from the Associated Press, Reuters, and
other sources. A lot of the content is aimed at those
inside the Beltway, but there is a good dose of
international and national coverage. Today's Top News,
for example, provides a good overview of
late-breaking events. In the Business section
you'll find online tools for checking stock prices,
tracking your portfolio, and finding the best
mortgage rates, as well as the day's business
stories. In many cases, stories often include links
to related Post articles and other Web
resources. And if you want to share your views, stop
by Business Talk,
where forums examine topics such as the current
events, the technology industry, and money.
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