The launch of the Wall Street Journal's New York Section has prompted the Guardian's Peter Preston to consider the future focus of national newspapers like the Journal. If the Journal, once a solely-national paper, can move towards local coverage, is that the inevitable future for the rest of the large nationals in the industry?

He seems to think yes. The WSJ's Greater New York launch wasn't a personal attack on the New York Times or Arthur Sulzberger; rather, it was a smart business move in changing times.

"In spite of all the hype and excitement, this isn't some wild News Corporation lurch into alien territory," writes Preston. "It's competition as usual in an American newspaper world that seems to have forgotten what competition means."

This venture is a good thing, says Preston, because it's money going to print rather than just online, which will create jobs for 40 journalists and expand a newspaper in a time when most are scrambling to contract. And this move might bode well for future local sections in the Journal and beyond.

"If this works, there'll be many more sections of regional news, arts and features following for places like Chicago, Los Angeles and Philadelphia," he writes. "There's a redefinition, in short, of what 'national' and 'local' can mean."

So why, then, if local news is being redefined by Murdoch himself, has there not been more of a push towards local news in the UK? Preston muses over the fact that Murdoch-owned Times of Wapping doesn't offer a localized London section, calling it "a sadness, and a curiosity." But if Murdoch's expansionist impulses continue, perhaps that's the next thing readers will see.

Source: Guardian