Views matter as much as news for business audience in digital age

What are we to make of the daily catalogue of disaster? Why has it happened? What can be done?
These are questions being asked by business insiders as well as the general public. It means that financial newspaper journalists, many of whom find themselves on the front page rather than confined to business sections such as this one, are being read as never before. Similarly, on television and radio news bulletins, finance correspondents are becoming better known than ever as they try to explain the unfolding gloom. The BBC's business editor, Robert Peston, appears to be run off his feet as he darts from studio to studio.

The hunger is not so much for news. The collapse of Lehman Brothers was a fact, as was Merrill Lynch's sale and the US government's rescue of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. What matters more, much more, is the analysis and the commentary to make those facts understandable. Naturally enough, the views offered by journalists on this newspaper and all the other quality titles are being sought.

But they have a specialist online rival, which has assumed a growing importance in financial circles since it first appeared eight years ago.
Breakingviews.com is a London-based website that publishes short analyses by 25 expert commentators based in London, New York, Paris, Washington, San Francisco and Madrid.

Its online content is also reproduced in print columns in many of the world's most influential daily newspapers, such as France's Le Monde, Spain's El Pais and Germany's Handelsblatt. Until recently, the column also featured in the Wall Street Journal and WSJ Europe. That arrangement came to an end after Rupert Murdoch's takeover.

From next week, however, breakingviews will feature every day in the Daily Telegraph, in both print and online. Telegraph Media Group's digital editor, Ed Roussel, was already planning to revamp the online offering, which will be labelled finance, and says it was a happy coincidence that it will relaunch with "this important new component".

Editor Will Lewis agrees: "With all that's going on just now people are asking, what does it all mean?' There's no-one better than Hugo's men to provide answers."

The reference is to Hugo Dixon, a former Financial Times Lex columnist, who founded breakingviews and is its executive chairman. He set out to provide speedy, well-informed financial analysis to an elite niche market even smaller than that served by the FT.

Dixon calls breakingviews "the world's leading source of agenda-setting financial insight".

The boast may lack modesty, but a host of testimonials from business leaders and investment bankers give it credence. For example, Paul Calello, chief executive of investment bank Credit Suisse, counts on its "provocative analysis". James Tisch, chief executive with Loews Corporation, believes it offers "insight and analysis to breaking financial news stories that no other publication provides in such a timely fashion".

They are among the 15,000 subscribers to breakingviews, the vast majority of whom must find the service valuable because the website recently achieved a 95% renewal rate.

Dixon does not seem too upset at losing the tie-up with the WSJ. The Telegraph deal offers a chance to engage with a wider audience and there are rumours that the New York Times may follow suit. Dixon will not comment.

There is very little advertising on the site but, aside from subscriptions, it also enjoys revenue from about 400 clients, such as Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank, to supply their staff with expert analyses. In current conditions there must be a possibility that some clients, like Merrill Lynch, will simply disappear. The site's US editor, Rob Cox, counters: "While it's clear that some of our customers are hurting, it is also obvious that there is a need to know, to have an independent view and a calm and insightful take on what's happening. We can see through the clutter. The truth is that people really need us."

I zipped through half a dozen of the latest offerings and was struck by the absolute authority with which the writers invested their copy. It was, as Cox, put it "straight-up analysis". But most were no more than 400 words, if that.

"Our slogan is less is more," says Cox. "Time is short and there is a value in getting a message across quickly."

I have written often about the way in which media is developing due to the digital revolution. Without the huge costs associated with producing and distributing newsprint, it enables a small group of highly-skilled journalists — whether in the fields of finance, sport or gardening — to write for specific audiences that require expert information and analysis. Both sides gain.

Unless, of course, the financial world collapses entirely...