Wall Street Journal to hire a dozen reporters to cover local New York news

Posted by Emma Heald on November 4, 2009 at 10:18 AM

The Wall Street Journal is to hire about a dozen reporters in New York to cover local news, the New York Times reported. The news comes just days after the paper announced the closure of its Boston bureau, for financial reasons.

It was reported earlier this year that the Wall Street Journal was planning to start a New York edition, and the new staff will presumably be working for this. They are to cover traditional city desk beats like courthouses, City Hall and the state capital, according to the New York Times. The new edition is expected to have a strong arts and culture focus, it was reported this summer.

Since the Journal entered the hands of Rupert Murdoch and News Corp, it has somewhat shifted its focus away from purely financial news and has taken steps to become a more general interest publication, arguably in more direct competition with the New York Times. It added sports coverage in March, and as well as a New York edition, the paper is also looking to release a San Francisco edition, it was reported in September. The New York Times also just launched a San Francisco specific edition.

The Wall Street Journal is one of the only major English-language newspapers to successfully charge for its online content, and recently had the highest circulation amongst US papers, according to ABC results. The closure of its Boston bureau shows that it is not immune to the advertising slowdown, but the paper is has been fighting back with the launch of new services such as the Wall Street Journal Professional Edition.

Source: New York Times