The Wall Street Journal is planning a January 2007 redesign. Publisher L. Gordon Crovitz described the impending changes at an Inter American Press Association seminar in Mexico City.

Crovitz is optimistic about the future of the Wall Street Journal. He has reason to be: the Journal is one of the few papers that has maintained even circulation rates throughout the rise of Internet news.

Wall Street Journal research has shown that its readers, mainly top executives, want the paper’s print and online factions to be further integrated. They are also interested in a print paper with better readability.

In response to its customers’ needs, the Journal has planned a series of changes, including:

• Web width will shrink to the size of a standard industry broadsheet.
• “What’s New,” the paper’s front-page news summary, will be interspersed throughout the paper.
• A new “Markets Data Center” will compile pages of financial information.

Crovitz stressed that the changes would not come with staff downsizing. This redesign is not an overhaul, but a retooling of a classic and trusted paper.

Source: Editor and Publisher