The Wall Street Journal continues changes, plans to makeover Marketplace

Since Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation bought Dow Jones & Company, The Wall Street Journal has faced many changes, such as a reduced focus on business news on the front page, a new focus on politics on the front page, and a decrease in long, investigative, or offbeat articles. In the coming weeks, the WSJ will continue to move toward more breaking news and shorter articles, as well as transform its Marketplace section instead of replacing it.

The makeover of Marketplace will include:
- Fewer business features on the first page.
- Shifting featured columnists to the inside pages, except Water Mossberg, the technology columnist.
- More hard news articles about the corporate world on the front page.

Robert Christie, a Dow Jones spokesman, said there are no plans to reduce the number of editors even though News Corporation executives have said that The Journal has too high a ratio of editors to reporters. Instead, they plan on hiring more reporters and bloggers.

"Our new corporate parent is committed to the expansion of the Journal franchise," he said. And quoting Marcus Brauchli, the Managing Editor, "There are a lot of evolutionary changes going on."

Recently, the WSJ has also published a special report on the environment, which to their ECO:nomics conference.

Sources: IHT, The Wall Street Journal