Content Analysis in Business Digital Media Columns: Evidence From Colombia Julián David Cortés-Sánchez a,b and Daniel Barredo Ibáñez c a School of Management and Business, Universidad del Rosario, Bogotá, Colombia; b Fudan Development Institute, Fudan University, Shanghai, China; c School of Human Sciences, Universidad del Rosario, Bogotá, Colombia ABSTRACT The business world is a voracious consumer of business media content. Research on business columnists has been focused mainly on the effects of columns’ content on stock prices and stock exchange performance indicators. In this study, we delve into the characteristics of business media and their development in terms of the readability and content of business digital media columns from a developing country (Colombia). For this, we conducted a readability and content analysis of a sample of 565 columns from Dinero and Portafolio, two of the most influential business media outlets in Colombia. Our results showed an over- representation of male columnists, a lower readability compared with columnists from abroad, and non-significant differences in readability regarding the media outlet and the columnists’ academic degree or gender. We also found that both media outlets have similar patterns in terms of their narratives. KEYWORDS Business media; columns; opinion; content analysis; readability; Colombia Introduction Business people and entrepreneurs are conspicuous consumers of business news content. For example, The Wall Street Journal reaches an audience of 42 million digital readers per month (The Wall Street Journal, 2017). People such as Kara Goldin, Warren Buffett, Kat Cole, and Bill Gates are loyal readers of the Financial Times or The Economist, which provide data and stories relevant to their daily decision-making activities (Gillett, Cain, and De Luce 2019). Research on business news and columnists has been following three streams, i.e., (i) the balance in terms of mentions of individuals by gender and ethnicity; (ii) the positive associ- ation between a high level of readability and the diffusion of posts on social networks (e.g., Facebook) (Austin 2010; Omar et al. (2010); Pancer et al. 2019), and (iii) the effect of the content of columns on buying/selling stocks and on stock exchange performance (Davies and Canes 1978; Lee 1986; Liu, Smith, and Syed 1990; Beneish 1991; Tetlock 2007; Brown, Ferguson, and Jackson 2009; Palmon, Sudit, and Yezegel 2009; Dougal et al. 2012). This study is framed within the first two streams. © 2020 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group CONTACT Julián David Cortés-Sánchez julian.cortess@urosario.edu.co JOURNALISM PRACTICE https://doi.org/10.1080/17512786.2020.1796762