The Wall Street Journal Europe Wants To Be Your Second Paper
When I lived in the States, WSJ was one of my favourite publications. I listened (and still sometimes listen to) every morning to WSJ This Morning, a radio show that focused on the main stories of the day, and read both the print and online versions. After moving to the UK I switched to the WSJ Europe edition and immediately noticed that there are some stark differences between the US and European editions. To learn more about these differences and the WSJ Europe, I recently attended one of Gorkana’s Breakfast Briefings with the editor in chief of Wall Street Journal Europe Patience Wheatcroft and its deputy editor Iain Martin.
I always thought of WSJ and Financial Times as business newspapers that compete head-to-head, but that’s not how Wheatcroft sees it. In the briefing, she described WSJ Europe as a complimentary newspaper to your first paper – whether that is FT or not. Martin added that WSJ Europe wants to provide less news, more analysis and provide readers with a second opinion. “All our readers want second opinion,” he said and added that WSJ Europe subscribers usually turn to the paper on the way home when they can spend time with some of the in-depth 2,000 word analysis.
It is also the goal of the paper, in the view of its top editors, to uncover stories that UK press misses because it doesn’t fit the overall narative. Martin talked about recent EU appointments of the first EU president and many of EU’s top executives. While the UK press couldn’t stop talking about whether Blair will become the next president, the French and Germans split most economic positions in the EU, leaving British empty handed, he said.
Wheatcroft also saw another difference between the UK press and WSJ Europe in the way it separates news and commentary. Those two things are oftentimes blurred in UK newspapers, something that would not be acceptable at WSJ, she noted and added: “We also absolutely insist on double sourcing.”
Going back to my earlier point about the differences in the US and Europe editions, the European edition is more global in its coverage, it syndicates heavily Dow Jones articles from all around the world (it has 420 writers just in Europe) and provides news primarily for top executives. It wants to be more global in its coverage than the FT, which Wheatcroft finds very UK centric.
I found WSJ in the US more mainstream with sections such as Personal Journal and with a lot more political and general news coverage (especially since News Corp bought Dow Jones in 2007). And I was certainly not the only one noticing this shift. Mark Jurkowitz of Journalism.org wrote in 2008:
In the first three months of Murdoch’s stewardship, the Journal’s front page has clearly shifted focus, de-emphasizing business coverage that was the franchise, while placing much more emphasis on domestic politics and devoting more attention to international issues.
The European edition hasn’t gone that route yet and remains in my view focused on business audience the way WSJ was in the US before Murdoch. Being more focused on top executives translates into smaller subscription numbers (European edition has a circulation of 75,000) but richer auduience. Average European reader makes nearly $100,000 more than a US reader according to WSJ’s media kit.
Murdoch is putting more effort into building WSJ Europe, with the recent hiring of Wheatcroft and Martin and many other writers and editors, the edition recently underwent a redesign, it is now promiment online, and most importantly it is one of the few papers that is making money. The European edition will likely grow in circulation numbers and influence in the coming months and years, so keep an eye on WSJ Europe. I know I will.
