Is The Wall Street Journal Becoming A High-Brow USA Today?

Philip M. Stone March 5, 2009

When one lives in the forest one may not necessarily see the trees, as the old saying goes, so on a recent trip to the US what shook this writer was how much the Wall Street Journal has changed in the 14 months under Rupert Murdoch. Those changes may have been introduced gradually over time, but for one who had not really seen the paper on a regular basis during that time to see it now and compare it to the WSJ of old is quite a culture shock.

The first thought that came to mind is that this is no longer primarily a business newspaper. It is a general news newspaper that still has a healthy dose of business and financial news.  And for people on the road who don’t have access to their local newspaper and who buy USA Today then one can’t help but think that the WSJ today serves that same purpose – a national newspaper without local ties that tells you what has really happened over the past 24 hours.

Oh sure, USA Today and the WSJ have different writing styles – USA Today stories real short; WSJ stories real long – and their coverage is not from the same planet, but the WSJ has announced the introduction of a daily sports section although it is predicated on writing about the future with lots of charts and graphics rather than giving yesterday’s game story and scores.

And it’s doubtful that anyone will ever confuse the page design of USA Today with the WSJ, but if the purpose of each is to give a pretty good idea what has happened generally in the past 24 hours and what may be happening in the future, then the WSJ has moved to that platform. The writing styles are still very different – USA Today written for the Kansas City milkman while the Journal is more high brow – but the fact is the WSJ is no longer just a business newspaper intended just for those wanting just a daily dose of business and financial news.

And that means that Rupert Murdoch is well into his goal of making the WSJ a national newspaper that that could eventually topple the New York Times from its perch as the national newspaper of record. The Times claims it is a national newspaper rather than a New York City newspaper, but in reality it’s still a New York City newspaper. The Journal, however, really does seem to have taken on that national mantle.

As for the changes, remember when the US Airway plane set down in the Hudson? The WSJ played that color picture across the entire width at the top of page 1. So much for the wood-carved drawing on that one, although those drawings still do show up from time to time.

Page 1 still runs two full columns of “What’s News” but look at the layout of the rest of the page with color photos and color charts and this could be the front page of any metropolitan newspaper even if the subject matter still tends to favor financial.

The Journal has made a point of going after the luxury advertising that used to be the province of just The Times on its second and third pages. In the Journal on those pages can now be found ads for the like of DeBeers, Canali,  Cartier, Giorgio Armani, and Tiffany & Company although if you listen to the Times’ sales people those WSJ ad rates are seriously discounted, even though Rupert Murdoch claims no discounting is going on.

Horizontal makeup is the name of the game. Many times the single line headlines at the top of the page will cover the entire six-column width and there are plenty of examples on pages without advertising of just three stories on the page, each with its own six-column headline.

There’s liberal use of color pictures, color charts and color ads. And to show not all stories are about business and finance there are long take-outs under such headlines as “After Prison, Few Places For Sex Offenders to Live “(trust a Murdoch newspaper to get sex into a headline!) and “In Just A Flash, Simple Surgery Can Turn Deadly” and then there’s “The Light Of Christ Abounds In Oakland’s New Cathedral”.

The Journal strived to make its fashion reporting such a powerhouse that the luxury advertisers would come flocking, but apparently they didn’t and that fashion editorial unit in New York has been disbanded. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t fashion reporting, and on the front page of the “Personal Journal” section recently was a big takeout on “Lean Times Beget Fresh Fashion Ideas” with the story jumping to the section back page where it took the whole top half of the page accompanied  in all by four color fashion photos. Does that sound like the old WSJ to you?

But a close look showed that in that Personal Journal section with all that fashion verbiage and those pictures there was not one luxury advertisement for fashion, accessories or anything! A sign of the times, or if they’re going to put the luxury advertising on pages two and three then perhaps that’s where the fashion editorial  belongs although that probably even today is too much of a change to ask of Murdoch’s people!

And just how different are The Journal and USA Today. Well, on the same day these were the two front-page headlines – USA Today: “$75B ‘Chance to Rebuild” with the subhead “Focus of President: 9M homeowners” whereas in the WSJ it was “Housing Bailout at $275 Billion”. Not a whole lot of difference there!

And as time goes on such similarities will no doubt become even more prevalent. Yes, The WSJ is becoming the thinking man (and woman’s) USA Today. It’s not yet The New York Times in its general news reporting, but give it time!