Glum economic news brings responses from readers

There’s a lot of it these days --- bad economic news.

The question is:  Do constant heavy doses of gloomy items affect newspaper readers and radio/TV listeners’ moods which are then reflected in the monthly Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index…setting off another round of pessimism?

Grumpy Editor cites these news items, getting a play Wednesday, that are among developments certain to affect this month’s Conference Board report (based on input from 5,000 households), to be released April 29:

·  Home sales fell in February to the lowest reading since the index began seven years ago.

·  Four airlines ceased operations in a week.  Which will be the next?

·  Minutes of the March 18 Federal Reserve meeting show some policy makers felt falling home prices and financial market turmoil "could lead to a more severe and protracted downturn."

·  Small business owners’ confidence in the economy is plummeting, prompting cutbacks in hiring and expansion plans.

·  Consumers, worried about retirement, show the weakest worker confidence in seven years.

·  Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said the U.S. economy is in a recession.

·  Energy officials, in a sharp upward revision, expect oil to average $101 a barrel this year.

Negative coverage complaints are starting to flow to editors.

For example, Ted Vaden, public editor of the (Raleigh, N.C.) News & Observer, sums up messages from uneasy readers with, “Jeepers, can't the N&O find anything positive to say about the U.S. economy?”  He adds, “That's a question editors hear increasingly as the economy slips into ... whoops, performs less well. The seemingly unceasing torrent of bad business news weighs on readers' minds and, some think, makes things worse.”

Some readers, Vaden continues, also complain that his paper’s portrayal of a negative national economic picture doesn't adequately take into account more positive conditions in local markets. “Real estate people, in particular, have complained,” he points out.

Vaden says he talked to North Carolina State University economist Michael Walden to see if there is any validity to the notion that negative press makes a bad economy worse.  To some extent, the economist feels that's true, relays Vaden.

He quotes Walden saying, “Consumers, if they don't feel confident, won't spend money, and that's what we need to bring us out of a down cycle. There probably is some impact on consumer confidence of people reading about the state of the economy."