The new Wall Street Journal was rolled out earlier this week with some significant changes. Project for Excellence in Journalism (PEJ) examines how the 119-year-old WSJ has changed since Rupert Murdoch took control, focusing on the front page every other weekday, and how the WSJ stands up next to The New York Times, Murdoch's declared competitor.

- The front page changed focus in the first four months from business coverage to domestic politics and international issues.
- From Dec. 13, 2007 to March 13, 2008, the front page covered politics and the presidential campaign three times as much, from 5% (four months before Murdoch) to 18%.
- Consequently, coverage of corporate American decreased more than half to 14% of front page space, compared to 30% pre-Murdoch.
- Coverage of foreign events that "do not directly involve the U.S." jumped from 18% to 25%. 9% of that relates to overseas economic and business affairs.
- Health and medicine dropped from 5% to less than 1%.
- Transportation issues dropped from 3% to 0%.
- Environmental topics dropped from 3% to 1%.

Categories that seemingly remain unchanged:
- Economics stayed at 15%.
- Coverage of foreign events "in which the U.S. played a major role" remained at 4%.
- Lifestyle coverage stayed at about 4% as well as education at 3%.

An example of the "changing news agenda" was the front page on April 21, the day before the presidential election Pennsylvania primary. There were two campaign stories and the headline: T "Latest Attacks Roil Democrats." A "more traditional Journal story," about problems at smaller-to-midsize banks was pushed to the bottom half of the page with a story about "easing tensions between China and a small island controlled by Taiwan," according to PEJ.


PEJ observes that the front pages of the WSJ and NY Times from Dec. 13, 2007 to March 13, 2008 are "not the same, certainly not yet."
- Politics: WSJ devotes 18% of the newshole to politics, but the Times filled 27% of its newshole with politics.
- Business: WSJ still gave more coverage with 14%  than the Times with 4%.
- Economics: WSJ covered it more with 15%, compared to the Times with 9%.
- Foreign affairs involving the U.S.:  The Times at 8% produced about twice as much coverage as the Journal at 4%.
- International events not directly related to the U.S.: The Journal had more coverage at 25% to the Times attention at 17%.

For the complete list of statistics, visit PEJ's website.

Source: PEJ (photos) through LA Times News Alerts