A few years ago business news was ruled by the magazines, and one often had two or three professional journals, subscriptions to daily business newspapers and magazines. The internet changed all that.
Today, business news can be instant, tailored to your exact needs, and easily accessible wherever you are or whenever you need it.
Today's Internet
With the power of search engines, especially the big three (Google, MSN, and Yahoo), you can discover information about your industry, keep abreast of developments in your industry and keep up with and ahead of your competition.
These will by necessity have RSS (really simple syndication).
RSS is a new protocol, and sends messages in XML, and can be received by a newsreader (many available on the internet, and most for free).
You can receive as many "feeds" as you wish, and often you can even tailor make your own feeds from the source.
News Plus
For general news, or news that you believe can affect your business, you can edit even further from searching news services like Google.
You just enter your news search term, and whoever is writing about your subject daily will appear on your news service page.
Most newspapers today will have their online versions, and many will have them in text format or even PDF format so you can actually read the newspaper.
If it's a trade paper, they may even include email or SMS updates to important news events.
Television on the Internet
In addition to printed material, there is now a growing trend for video and television news on the internet, with new sources being added daily.
Some are live like Reuters and Bloomberg and can bring you instant business data of a general type.
Other services are industry related, and one sees video reports on a timely basis from industry experts.
These are the people that had industry newsletters that were the first victims of the internet. They offer also email, SMS updates to your mobile phone, and live (or recorded) video broadcasts.
The Professional Blog and Forums
Both of these peer to peer services can be valuable sources of information.
When the presidents of large companies are blogging and you can read their views on a daily basis, your own sources of news and business data are greatly enhanced.
The forum lets you ask questions and your peers can reply, and usually do. You can end up with a far wider point of view than you could have a few years ago by just reading the industry journals and Business Week or Forbes.
