In the latest stage of reinvigorating the
Wall Street Journal brand, its online edition -
WSJ.com - has undergone a huge makeover, relaunching on Tuesday.
The parent company,
Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., appears determined to put its mark on its latest acquisition; the President of the
Wall Street Journal Digital Network,
Gordon McLeod, reportedly said that the investment into the website revamp is a "big financial commitment." The
Editors Weblog spoke with the
Deputy Editor of the
Wall Street Journal,
Alan Murray, about the shake up occurring at the newspaper. Murray was bullish about the changes, saying, "The new owners have made it clear that they no longer want people to look at the
Wall Street Journal as a second read. It should be their primary read, it should suit all their information needs. We want it to be the ultimate news source for our engaged, affluent and educated readers."
Murray went on to speak about the redesign of
WSJ.com, the recent changes in newsroom layout and management, and the ambitious plans for the future of the
Wall Street Journal brand. He made it clear that, "(The website relaunch) is not a finishing point. This is the launching pad."
Murray was particularly excited about the relaunch occuring at the same time as the
Lehman Brothers story breaking, saying "We are delighted that the biggest financial news story since 1929 happens to coincide with the launch of our revamped site!"
"Newsreel" revolutionizes site navigationFor the new, sleek look of WSJ.com, News Corp's primary design motivation was to take advantage of users who "come in through the side door". Individual article pages mostly found through search engines, have been equipped with multiple navigation tools, to keep readers on the WSJ site.
Arguably the most interesting navigation feature is "
Newsreel", essentially a news ticker placed at the top of the article. As the reader browses an article page, Newsreel scrolls through the days most important stories from the section the user is in. For example, if a user is in the business section, the Newsreel displays the top business stories of the day.
In addition to the new layout and navigation functions, the Journal's newsroom is upping its content production to help keep readers on the site. The redesign also aims to be more colourful with more photos and includes an enhanced video player, an increasingly prevalent aspect of all news websites. Further features are set to roll out over the coming months.
Social network for the business community
Perhaps most important for the WSJ's new owners is maintaining WSJ.com's impressive online subscription base, which has reached over 1 million paying members. Apart from increasing content, News Corp hopes to hold on to these subscribers with exclusive features such as
WSJ Community, a social network for WSJ subscribers.
The key feature of this new social networking tool is
that members must use their real names, which is aimed at
cutting out any random, anonymous comments or useless noise found on other Internet news sites. Murray believes the
quality of the site's subscriber base will create "a higher quality
conversation". He acknowledges WSJ.com will not
achieve the numbers of a chat on
Yahoo Finance but, "we think the
usefulness and quality is going to be key". The Journal is considering opening up the Community to non-subscribers in the future, who, just like subscribers, would only be able to join and interact with their real name.
WSJ.com has been the world's most successful subscription newssite for years and its membership keeps growing. According to Murray, online subscriptions have increased 26% in the past two years. And the number of unique user is skyrocketing too: "By our numbers, we now have 17 million
visitors to WSJ.com" - 8 million more than two years ago - "and in
September it is going to be even bigger than that. Therefore, Murray doesn't see any conflict in bringing more people in
and letting them sample WSJ content.
Integrated NewsroomMurray
revealed that the Wall Street Journal is not only undergoing a radical
change on its website, but is also changing in its newsroom, "The
relaunch coincides with a complete integration and reorganisation of
the reporting and editing staff."
Managing Editor,
Robert Thomson,
has spearheaded the integration programme, which has brought together
the online and print staff. Last week, Thomson debuted a news hub in
the newsroom where the senior editors from print, online, Dow Jones
Newswires and MarketWatch all sit together and co-ordinate the coverage
throughout the day.
The morning news meeting has been "totally
turned upside down," according to Murray. It now begins with a report
from the online team, then from
Dow Jones Newswires, then
MarketWatch and, only after discussing the coverage for real-time news, do they look at coverage for the day's paper.
The
substantial Dow Jones Newswire team is also being moved to make the
integration process physical, with the whole team being brought across
the river to sit alongside their New York print colleagues. This move
will happen, "sometime next Spring" Murray said.
The Wall Street
Journal team has been undergoing training to prepare for the
integration process. Murray reported, "A simple example is headlines.
You have to write a different kind of headline in the online world and
in the print world. We will continue to do that kind of training."
The future of the Wall Street JournalThe
Editors Weblog asked if this process was the beginning of a long
term-reinvigoration process for the Wall Street Journal brand, Murray
said: "You bet! We have very ambitious plans for international, we have
very ambitious plans for premium products on top of this online
platform and we have a whole schedule of online innovations that we are
planning over the course of the next 18 months. This is just the
beginning"
"Look for us forming closer links with all the
social networks because we are not trying to compete with social
networks, we want to make it as easy as possible for our users to share
our content over social networks and to bring their friends and
connection into our community"
Murray also added that News Corp
is confident about the future of print, stating, "The Wall Street
Journal under its new management is investing in both print and online,
so I would say we are very optimistic about the future of newspapers.
We may be the only people who are optimistic! We are dedicated to
delivering our news on all platforms"
Source:
Wall Street Journal,
Dow Jones Newswires,
MarketWatch,
paidcontent.orgSee also:
US: Murdoch on the future of newspapers US: Wall Street Journal to launch new website on TuesdayWall Street Journal unveils magazine supplement, WSJUS: Wall Street Journal launches new mobile applicationMurdoch: Newspapers willing to invest in new forms of delivery will prosper
