ABSTRACT
A business story in The New York Times on April 10, 2021, titled “Inside the Fight for the Future of The Wall Street Journal,” suggested that the nation’s most famous business newspaper was held back by its conservative editorial page. The story ignited a debate among alumni of the WSJ that relates to business journalism more broadly. Over time, major titles such as the WSJ, The Economist, Forbes and others developed conservative editorial viewpoints as they covered markets, economics and business. That orientation comes from the triumph of free-market thinking in the 20th century led by Austrian economists such as Friedrich A. Hayek and University of Chicago economists such as Milton Friedman, who influenced modern policies of the Republicans (especially Ronald Reagan). Businesspeople largely operated with a similar worldview, richly rewarding the business press as a more lucrative area of journalism. In the 21st century, some left-leaning publications such as The New York Times, along with startups such as Insider, Quartz and Buzzfeed, expanded the lenses of business coverage, challenging some free-market and politically conservative orthodoxies of the 20th century. The new competition, however, doesn’t mean that leading business publications will turn “woke” and abandon lucrative “not woke” or “anti-woke” positions.
