Reading Eagle’s business reporting paints Berks Countians as economic rubes

by Steve Reinbrecht

Information about real estate and the housing industry is important. 

Don’t trust me. Trust Forbes: “If you want to look at telltale indicators that reveal whether a specific local real estate market is outperforming – or underperforming – during the national rebound underway, check out these two: The median number of days from listing of a house to sale, and whether the local drop in available homes for sale has been above or below the national norm.”

Therefore, I clicked right through to the Reading Eagle’s latest post about June’s statistics. I love economic statistics. I can’t get enough of them.

But once again, the Eagle proves it is a pseudo-paper that wants to LOOK like a newspaper but not really be a newspaper.

At the top of the article, the Reading-Berks Association of Realtors writes: “Educating the public on current market data is a key component of our outreach to the greater Reading community, and we are privileged to provide the current market statistics for Berks County as of June.”

I think that’s great. Sort of like citizen journalism.

But the Reading Eagle just slopped the association’s news release on the page unedited. If I wrote it, I’d be pissed. Little of it is relevant or even makes sense.

Editors don’t let sentences like this appear in the newspaper: “The average percentage of listing prices for which homes sold increased 0.89 percent to 97.63 percent, from 96.74 percent in May.”

It even botched the headline.

How is this treatment of “business news” going to appear to prospective investors who might expect a savvy business community?

And how does this kind of “journalism” promote a business community in Berks County that is savvy enough to deal with those prospective investors?

A recent headline on its latest “Business Weekly”:
Businesses find many reasons to relocate to Berks

[Tautologic when you think about it. If they didn’t have many reasons, they would not locate here.]

The article says six companies have moved into Berks in the past two years.

The editors should ask the reporters to find out why the same people have been in charge of economic development for so long without achieving much and still have their jobs.