Results matching “asia through wall street”

Wall Street Journal launched a glossy lifestyle magazine, WSJ., today.

WSJ., with a global circulation of 960,000, will appear on Friday, September 5, in The Wall Street Journal Asia and The Wall Street Journal Europe and on Saturday, September 6, in the U.S. Weekend Edition of the Journal.

The magazine will cover cars, fashion, property, philanthropy, personalities and travel.

The 104-page premiere issue of WSJ. in the U.S. (80 pages in the Europe and Asia editions) is launching with 51 advertisers, 19 of whom are new to The Wall Street Journal franchise. WSJ. will have a circulation of 800,000 in the U.S. and 160,000 outside the U.S.

WSJ. content will also be available for free online at www.wsj.com from September 6. The magazine will remain as a quarterly publication in 2008 but transition to a monthly magazine in mid-2009.  

Source: Dow Jones and Company

Part 1 discussed how the planned changes at The New York Times and International Herald Tribune will help the NYT's continuous news offerings, and how these changes could affect the organization and interaction between both newsrooms.

Part 2 examines how The New York Times intends to:
- Further compete against the Financial Times and Wall Street Journal internationally, and ways in which newspapers can reinforce their international reach.
- Use the strength of its online brand while safeguarding the IHT's popular print brand name.

The Weblog spoke to Jim Roberts, Digital Editor at The New York Times, and Martin Gottlieb, who was appointed to the newly created position of Editor, Global Edition.

How newspapers can become international brands, the NYT joins the race

Until now, the Times hasn't specifically catered to overseas advertisers and readers.

"We need to be agile," said IHT publisher Stephen Dunbar-Johnson, "to compete much more aggressively, nose to nose, with The Financial Times, Wall Street Journal and anybody else who is competing for our readers and advertisers."

No doubt that the Times actually borrowed the continuous news outpost idea from the aforementioned competitors, which have been relying on their foreign bureaus to provide round the clock coverage.

The staff memo reaffirmed the NYT's "ambitious plans to expand in the region (Asia), particularly in India." In June, the IHT announced a partnership with the India-based Deccan Chronicle to print the Tribune's world business section in the Financial Chronicle.

With the rise of digital publishing, many news organizations are seeking to grow a previously inaccessible international readership by:

- launching a print edition abroad: several papers have rolled out editions away from home this past year, such as the FT's recently launched Middle East edition in Abu Dhabi, WSJ's partnership with business paper Mint in India, the Daily Mail's partnership with India Today to publish the Mail Today, or The Times of London's Polish edition.

- investing in an online international section: In Germany, referential weekly Der Spiegel launched an English-language International edition on its website in 2004. Five fulltime staffers are dedicated to translating Der Spiegel's content and rewriting it with an international perspective, as well as doing their own international-minded original reporting (the full case study is featured in Trends in Newsrooms 2008). The Guardian adopted a different approach, by launching a separate, foreign-based, US website, Guardian America. The Guardian is reportedly considering similar ventures in other regions.

- simply reinforcing their focus on international news in their regular coverage: the Daily Telegraph's website in the UK, which was neck to neck with the Guardian in terms of traffic in April, claims nearly two thirds of its visitors are from overseas. A well-indexed website helps to brings in a significant number of 'light' international users through search engines.

Merging "co-branded" websites but not print: a branding issue

The NYT's approach is a combination of the first two strategies: the print IHT now serves as The Times' 'global edition' (see picture), while maintaining its trademark brand name. With the proposed online merger, the NYT could also follow the second route, by hosting an international edition online, without having to extensively change its workflows (see Part 1).

The rationale to merge the websites is clearly explained in the memo: according to WebTrends, NYT's website boasts a strong international audience and 58 million global users, compared to iht.com's seven million.

"The global landscape for online news is highly competitive, making scale, speed and resources essential to success. Therefore we have determined that the best future online for the IHT and the NYT globally is through a joint international presence," said the memo.

However, the memo doesn't explicitly say why this won't be the case in print:

"The IHT should become the international print edition of the NYT, whether it is formally branded that way or not."

The main issue at stake is one of branding. "In print, there have been at least a couple of studies that show that among Tribune newspaper readers there is a great identification with the brand, that the brand means something to readers," said Gottlieb.

"More than the name, what accompanies the name, an international perspective, a sense of calling the best stories from The Times and augmenting them with unique reporting," was a combination that many readers liked.

As news organizations seek to grow their international reach, this consideration probably holds true for many that have established a reputable brand name on a local or national scale. However strong the brand name, its association with a particular place or country can potentially play against that news outlet on the international scene.

Source: New York Times - Media Bistro - Jim Roberts, Digital Editor The New York Times - Martin Gottlieb, Editor, Global Edition

Marcus Brauchli, top editor of the Wall Street Journal is stepping down after less than five months since Rupert Murdoch took control of the paper.

Brauchli had been in the job for a year, Last month, he said in an interview that Murdoch was "very engaged" but "set broad objectives" to maintain the paper's independence.

Part of the agreement that allowed Murdoch to buy the WSJ stated that Murdoch could not remove three top-ranking editors, including Brauchli. With Brauchli's resignation, Murdoch can now choose a successor, but a special committee must approve of that person first, according to the agreement.

Some Journal staffers say that "Brauchli felt overshadowed by the paper's new publisher, Robert Thomson, a former editor of another Murdoch property, the Times of London."

Thomson said Murdoch is "clearly interested in challenging the journalistic establishment" by broadening the Journal's coverage. Washingtonpost.com's Howard Kurtz wonders if "the sense of anxiety [of Murdoch's political interference] could return if Murdoch names an editor, whether Thomson or someone else, from outside the Journal culture."

Source: WashingtonPost.com

UPDATE:
Brauchli wrote a memo to his staff that stated his reason as "now that the ownership transition has taken place, I have come to believe the new owners should have a managing editor of their choosing."

He acknowledges that "change was necessary" in the newspaper industry, but also when News Corp. bought Dow Jones, an editorial agreement was made to "block commercial or political interference in our journalism," read the memo.

Though Brauchli concedes that the new management has adhered to the agreement and that the "journalistic integrity remains intact," WSJ.com reports that Brauchli had difficulties being a mediator between the paper's traditions and News Corp's new vision. He had complained that "he wasn't always in the loop about new ideas" in the past few weeks, according to WSJ.com.

Reuters reports that the resignation could "reignite worries about editorial independence that were voiced during Murdoch's takeover bid when some staffers feared the Journal's reputation as the top U.S. business newspaper would be threatened if Murdoch became proprietor."

With Brauchli's resignation, current WSJ publisher Robert Thomson may take on a more active role in the newsroom, but isn't expected to be the interim managing editor, according to WSJ.com. There already is a search for the next managing editor. Brauchli, however, is likely to stay in the company, possibly as a consultant, says WSJ.com, guiding senior management, including "whether News Corp.'s Star-TV service in Asia should launch a business-news channel."

Murdoch said he believed Brauchli's experience "will be a great asset, especially in Asia -- a region where we see significant growth potential and where he has particular expertise."

Dean Starkman of CJR writes that "with Brauchli gone, the Journal newsroom loses not just a topflight editor and bureau chief, a great Asia hand, and someone who was a real, live reporter, [but also] loses a surprisingly savvy internal diplomat who, I thought, might just have been adroit enough to manage the inevitable tensions that would arise from the takeover, at least enough to preserve some of the Journal's great journalistic heritage."

Sources: Poynter Online, Wall Street Journal, Columbia Journalism Review, Reuters
through Poynter Romenesko

The Editors Weblog is running a series of exclusive interviews about the future of journalism with top editors at leading newspapers around the world. Here is the latest installment with  Jonathan Landman, deputy Managing Editor of The New York Times in the US.

The list of upcoming interviews will be updated as they are published (click here to view all interviews in this series). Among the other titles that have been asked to participate in these interviews are:

- The New York Times - Jonathan Landman (US)
- Financial Times (UK)
- Guardian (UK)
- Washington Post - Jim Brady (US)
- Globe & Mail - Ed Greenspon (Canada)
- The Times (UK)
- The Economist (UK)
- Gazeta Wyborcza - Jaroslaw Kurski (Poland)
- Le Monde (France)
- Die Welt (Germany)
- The Hindustan Times - Pankaj Paul (India)
- Asahi Shimbun (Japan)
- JoongAng Ilbo (South Korea)
- The Age / Fairfax - Mike van Niekerk (Australia)
- The Nation - Pana Janviroj (Thailand)
- Punch (Nigeria)
- El Tiempo (Colombia)
- Clarin (Argentina)
- Gulf News - Abdul Hamid Ahmad (UAE)

Questions: "News, journalism, newspapers: same past, different futures?"

1 -      How long do you think you will define your company as a newspaper company or a print company?

We're a news and information company, not just a newspaper or print company. We own newspapers, obviously, and they remain extremely important. But we also own Web sites, not only www.nytimes.com but also www.about.com and www.boston.com and others. The Web sites are growing smartly. They are also contributing a steadily increasing share of the company's revenue -- 11 percent at the end of 2007.

 2 -    At this year's World Economic Forum in Davos, a panel of futurists claimed that print newspapers wouldn't exist by 2014. To what extent do you agree with this?

I doubt it. Big U.S. papers like The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal still have a lot of loyal readers who like the feel and experience of a newspaper. I imagine newspapers will survive until the perfect electronic substitute comes along and combines the portability and readability of a newspaper with the connectivity and multimedia capabilities of the Web.
When will that happen? Place your bets.
 
3 -     In journalism's multi-centennial history, do you view the emergence of digital journalism as part of the continuity, or as a complete breakaway with previous forms of journalism?

Both. Digital journalism combines brand-new things with time-tested old ones. The most pronounced change is in the realm of reader interaction -- technology has made it possible for journalists, outside experts and other readers to talk to each other, to collaborate on news-gathering and analysis, to fact-check and to distribute journalism in new ways. It has pulled the newspaper package apart, allowing people to acquire and consume their journalism one piece at a time or to customize it to fit their needs. It has altered the journalist's relationship with sources and introduced new visual forms like the interactive graphic. It has picked up the journalistic pace.

Those are big changes. Still, the things that haven't changed are just as important as the things that have. Good journalists must still know their subjects. Ambitious and resourceful reporting are as essential to good news video as they are to good news writing. News judgment -- shorthand for a complicated, unscientific and very human professional assessment of what's most important, interesting, surprising, funny, educational and otherwise worth knowing about -- retains its value.

4 -       Do you believe in the increasingly active role of the user in the news process, and is it a threat or an opportunity for professional journalists?

An opportunity. See above. For us, figuring out how to mobilize our sophisticated, curious and well-informed audience in constructive ways is both a challenge and a high priority.
 
5 -       Do you consider the Golden Age of investigative journalism is already past, or just beginning?

There's no doubt that financial pressures have driven many newspapers to cut back on investigative work. But that is distinctly not the case at The New York Times. Here are (also here, here, here and here) just a few important examples to illustrate the point.

The decline of investigative reporting at newspapers can't be a plus for democracy. On the other hand, the Internet has made public records and other documents much easier to find, expose and examine. It has made it easier for fine independent journalists like Joshua Micah Marshall to find an audience for excellent investigative work that would otherwise not gain wide public attention. And it has made it easier for whistleblowers and others to find and reinforce each other.
 
In those ways it has expanded opportunities for professional journalists to work with other people to expose wrongdoing and explore important issues. I'd say this form of collaborative investigative journalism is still young and has much potential.

6 -       Can journalism survive newspapers? (And maybe can newspapers survive journalism?)

Commentators and prognosticators have been predicting the imminent demise of newspapers for at least 15 years. A famous example: In 1993 in Wired Magazine, Michael Crichton wrote: "To my mind, it is likely that what we now understand as the mass media will be gone within 10 years. Vanished, without a trace." The New York Times, he said, will be the GM or IBM of the 1990's, "the next great American institution to find itself obsolete and outdated while obstinately refusing to change."

Nine years later, the media critic of Slate, Jack Shafer, noted that Crichton had been wrong and took a stab at explaining why. His concluding paragraphs:
"As the wise man once said, if you're going to make predictions, make a lot of them. Folks will forget your misses and remember your hits. In that spirit, Crichton writes, 'Sooner or later a lot of people are going to say, "You know what? An editor is worth the money. Because time is money, and my time is wasted combing through this junk. I'll pay someone to do it." And it'll happen.'

"To my ears, though, that still sounds like the New York Times."


Stay tuned for more in our interview series: the next installment will feature Financial Times' Managing Editor Dan Bogler.

New Dow Jones & Co Chief Executive Les Hinton predicts strong growth in the Asia-Pacific Region, including Australia because the Wall Street Journal, which Dow Jones owns, is "simply put, [a] business and financial intelligence delivered by a reliable source that people need."

Hinton also stated that it was "increasingly unlikely" to make all of wsj.com free. Though that move would potentially attract more viewers, it would be almost impossible to reverse that decision, a risk that WSJ is not willing to take. "You'd never say never, but it doesn't seem like a logical thing to do," Hinton said.

He also expects the launch of a new luxury lifestyle magazine, WSJ, to appeal to advertisers in the luxury goods and jewelery area. The dummy edition received a positive response.

Though the Wall Street Journal is going toward a more "general news" model, Hinton says that "We will never do is forsake its role of being, above all, the world's business newspaper. That is its place in the world, it is the reason it's prospered."

Source: The Australian Media

News Corp. has confirmed that Robert Thomson will take over as publisher of Dow Jones & Co. and The Wall Street Journal as soon as News Corp.'s purchase of Dow Jones is complete.

In the wake of Rupert Murdoch’s $5.6 billion takeover of Dow Jones, the reactions among the media have been diverse: was it a fatal blow onto a trusted news organization’s credibility, a profitable deal in a struggling industry, a conventional business move that won’t affect the Wall Street Journal’s (WSJ) editorial integrity? Most probably, a little of all of the above. What will become of the Journal’s praised journalism? In addition to international media’s views, the Editors Weblog collected the insight of some top French editors.

With Rupert Murdoch potentially within days of acquiring Dow Jones Co., many analysts are pointing towards Asian markets as the media mogul’s primary motive for his “insanely high” $5 billion bid for the company.

As its news operation becomes increasingly important in its role as an information company, Bloomberg plans to add at least 240 reporters in 2007, a 10% boost in staff.  Many see the increase as Bloomberg’s strategy to keep ahead of Reuters and Thomson, as well as the potential threat of News Corp as Rupert Murdoch bids for Dow Jones Co.

The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) is planning to launch its overseas websites in a range of foreign languages, in an effort to increase its reach outside of the U.S. (and eventually buy the Financial Times?). Within its core market, WSJ has launched a trendy ad campaign targeting women and younger readers.

The International Herald Tribune will begin printing in Bangladesh in a new agreement with Cross World Trading Co., which already distributes the Paris-based daily in the country. The paper will now print through its subsidiary IHT Bangladesh Ltd. (IHTBL) and will be available for early morning distribution to news outlets and subscribers in Dhaka and other major cities in the country.

Designed to save $17 million dollars a year starting in 2006, the Wall Street Journals change from a broadsheet to a more compact tabloid format has not met its readers approval. Dow Jones and Co. Inc plans to “retool” its Wall Street Journal Asian and European newspaper editions, two editions struggling to stay afloat.