As paper and print costs rise and the Internet posts up to the minute data, many newspapers have been scaling back their stock listing pages directing readers to their websites. But not all readers comply. The latest paper to cut financial listings, the Rocky Mountain News, found out the hard way.

After erasing most of its stock listings from the printed edition, RMN received about 200 complaints from readers, most of which were older and not familiar with digital news. Rob Reuteman, business editor of the daily, said, "I was talking with ninety-year old guys who've been subscribing for 44 years. And they're not getting on the Internet."

But Westword points out that the paper also received 15 email complaints, suggesting "that computer-literate people weren't nearly as cheesed off as were older members of the Rocky's demographic pool."

Steve Outing at Poynter thinks that cutting stock listings with the possibility of alienating older readers is a necessary evil of today's newspaper industry:

"So, what's a newspaper to do? I think that the Rocky and other newspapers are making the right decision. It's not a wise economic choice to continue to devote several pages of newsprint to stock tables that are relied on only by a small slice of the paper's readership. As more and more people use the Web for up-to-date stock quotes (instead of printed ones that are half a day or more old), printed stock tables just don't make sense."

Sources: Westword, Poynter