WSJ to launch Japanese-language website next month

Posted by Jennifer Lush on November 13, 2009 at 1:14 PM

The Wall Street Journal will launch its anticipated Japanese-language website next month, reports Media Asia. Japan.WSJ.com is expected to reproduce Japanese translations of the english WSJ edition as well as content from other Dow Jones publications.

The website, which is the result of a partnership with Japanese financial services provider SBI Holdings, will officially launch on 15 December and a preview edition was put up earlier this week.

Dow Jones has said that the site will be the Wall Street Journal's second major Asian-language site after Chinese.WSJ.com, which was launched in 2002 and boasts 600,000 registered users. The figure positions the website as number six amongst the top ten business and finance sites in China, the only foreign site.

The Journal has invested heavily in digital platforms this year, with CEO Rupert Murdoch looking for ways to monetize online content. Amongst the initiatives are paid mobile applications, plans to charge for all news websites mobile, and plans to develop a social network to rival LinkedIn.

The launch of the website comes shortly after Dow Jones finalised a distribution deal with The Yomiuri Shimbun in February that allows the printing of the Wall Street Journal Asia in Japanese.

Expanding into Asian markets has also been a key strategy to generate revenue, with many of the world's newspapers facing plummeting circulation figures in the West.

When the Chinese.WSJ.com launched Andrew Brown, China editor for the WSJ and Dow Jones newswires said: "Our goal is to bring together in one place the smartest reporting and thinking about China today."

"For both experienced China-watchers, and anyone trying to figure out what the rise of China means for the world, China Real Time Report will be the place to go and join the conversation."

Similary Japan, being a hub for business, is commercially important and to have a website based there makes sense.

Aside from this geographical interest, however, the WSJ cannot be oblivious to the fact that the Japanese remain the world's most avid newspaper readers.

In comparision to the US., whose readership numbers have slipped 15% over the past decade, the five big national dailies in Japan have only seen a drop of 3.2%. According to Time, in Japan the average household still subscribes to more than one paper. WSJ, which has also revealed plans to expand in India, another country with high circulation firgures, could be trying to make the most of this.

Source: Media Asia