This post is not about Netflix...

I spotted an interesting story in the Wall Street Journal this morning: "Netflix U.S. Users Decline, Sinking Its Stock --- Video service reports 130,000 fewer domestic subscribers in second quarter."

To be frank, what was interesting for me about this article wasn't the content -- as much as I like streaming Netflix shows while I fold the laundry, I don't really need an ongoing blow-by-blow of its subscriber numbers.  No, what caught my attention was that this would be a good chance to highlight a couple of my favourite SFU Library resources: Factiva and Statista.

I rarely go a day without using both sources, and I bet that you won't either once you've started exploring them!

The Factiva database is our main source for the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), with complete fulltext from 1984 right up to today.  Factiva also has WSJ article abstracts + selected fulltext from June 13, 1979-1984, but if you like old articles, you might want to start with our Historical Newspapers database, which includes page-image versions of all WSJ issues from 1889-2002 (in addition to similar date ranges for the G&M, NYT, and Washington Post publications).

But wait... there's more! In addition to the WSJ, Factiva covers an astonishing 35,000(ish) other publications in at least 26 languages, including...

• Premier financial news sources such as the Investor's Business Daily and Barron’s.
• Continuously updated newswires and same-day published content.
• Specialized business/industry sources such as Mergent Industry Reports and Platts publications.
• Images, radio transcripts, multimedia, and blog content.

I can't imagine trying to work in Business without a solid news source -- business both thrives and dies on change, so of course you need to be aware of trends in the broader world!

I mention Statista quite often here in the BUEC Buzz, so I'll keep this short: If you need a statistic on, well, almost anything, you could either:

A. Go to Google and wade through lots of ads, irrelevant pages, and other detritus until you unearth something useful and dependable, then format it for inclusion in your presentation/report, then cite it; or... 

B. Go to Statista and quickly unearth a pre-vetted, pre-formatted statistic that's ready to be dropped into your presentation (complete with citation), then follow a link out to the original source to see if it has additional context/content you can use.  

Need a sample? Check out this search that I just ran for Netflix. My result list (partial screenshot below) included thousands of charts, dossiers, forecasts, infographics, and reports. Again, all pre-formatted and pre-vetted (but you do still need to evaluate everything, of course!). 

See also this broader Statista search for Video Streaming.

Questions?  You can find me at... mbodnar@sfu.ca

-- Mark
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Mark Bodnar
Business & Economics Librarian