Questionnaire finds only 38 per cent of print business journalists saying coverage in their area has remained constant or improved, compared with 89 per cent for broadcast
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Business journalism has been hit harder in print in the last five years than in any other media, according to the Business Journalists Study 2010.
Yet survey organisers say the overall outlook for the specialism remains positive.
The questionnaire, which was commissioned by the Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism at Arizona State University, was answered by 473 journalists.
The study found that overall, 62 per cent of respondents felt the volume of business coverage in their area had remained constant or even increased over the past five years.
When split between different platforms, this rose to 89 per cent within broadcast, 72 per cent in wire services and 76 per cent in online journalism.
However, this was not the case for freelancers and print journalists, with only 40 percent of freelance business journalists and 38 per cent of print media reporters agreeing.
Despite this, the survey showed a third of business journalists had experienced an increase in pay in the last two years, while seven out of 10 respondents claimed job satisfaction levels were the same or higher than five years ago.
Reynolds Center president Andrew Leckey said the survey cast a positive image for tomorrow's business journalism.
"We talked with hundreds of print, online, wire, broadcast and freelance business journalists, and they expressed optimism about the future of journalism," he said.
The survey results also illustrated the increased use of the internet and social media by business journalists, with half keeping a blog and filing copy to the web first.
Commenting on the study on his blog , professor Tim McGuire, who is the Frank Russell Chair for the Business of Journalism at ASU, said the optimistic response was surprising.
"I am trying to temper my reaction, but I will freely admit that for the very first time I am just a little bit tempted to buy into the complaints of the 'bad publicity' crowd who are contending newspapers and journalists are getting a raw deal from the 'negative Nellies' in the mainstream media," he wrote.
"Prior to reading this study I pretty much scoffed at the argument that the press is overdoing the gloom and doom of the newspaper industry. Now I’m thinking about it." See the full survey results here...
