A Very Disappointing Launch of the Compact Wall Street Journal Europe Commits a Fatal Error – It Is No Longer A Standalone Product

Philip M. Stone October 18, 2005

With all the spin on how the new compact Wall Street Journal Europe would establish a truly integrated multi-platform 7/24 news operation, its first edition Monday is truly a disappointment.

The idea, we had been told, was to show how print and its Internet site could be used for true convergence, each feeding off the other, and that ideal is, we believe, very much the future. But in trying to reach that goal – which it has not yet achieved -- the Journal has committed, in our view, a fatal flaw in that the print edition is no longer a standalone product.

To now get the market data information one wants means reading the Journal in conjunction with its web site, or some other web site, and that, to us, violates the principle that each product should be able to stand on its own two feet.

The Journal is making its wsj.com web site available to its print subscribers at no additional fee, but that does not solve the problem. If a reader is in an enclosed environment – on the train, the plane, traveling to and from the airport, the taxi, the Rolls  –and wants to look up the price of  a  NYSE or London share or a US mutual fund he/she is not going to find that information since those listings are now only on the web site.

The strategy is that the reader will log onto the web site and get the very latest up-to-date data rather than settle for stale day old listings. But that presumes the reader is continually in an environment where the web can be accessed. Perhaps they believe all their readers carry Blackberries, or have wi-fi notebooks open all the time, but that, of course, is not the case.

Being in Switzerland this reader is not about to pay 4 Swiss Francs ($3) at a newsstand for a US financial newspaper (even if it does say Europe in the masthead) and not be able to get what has always been considered to be basic financial data – share prices.

One reason for the Journal turning tabloid (oops, excuse us, compact) is to save production money. By not printing all those financial tables the new compact saves a lot of newsprint expense and financially it makes sense for them to get readers onto their web site (at an additional cost to the $3 unless you’re a subscriber).

The idea of the web site adding more information, and updating information during the day is right on, but that does not excuse getting rid of the vital market data in the print edition so that it no longer stands alone.

Putting all of that to one side, another major disappointment is how little convergence there really is with the web site. Again, from the spin, one had expected that nearly every story published would make reference to something additional on the web site, but in fact such notices are few and far between.

There were just two front page stories – one about banks wanting to expand in Romania and another about Glaxo’s diet drug in the US – both jumping to an inside page. But neither story gave any reference to further information on those subjects on the web site. One would have looked for transcripts of interviews, perhaps even videos of interviews used in the stories, but there was nothing. That, to us, is what convergence is all about.

That is not to say there were no such web references on other stories, but they were in the minority, On a story about German food, we were urged to go to the web site for recipes of the new German cousine; on a full page story on the Sarbanes-Oxley corporate governance law we were told to go to web site where the author discuss the legislation – exactly the type of convergence there should be, and on a story about the Refco commodities brokerage there was a reference to a video discussing the scandal – again the sort of thing we were looking for.

But these references were in the minority. They should be the majority. On some company stories (i.e: GE) there was a reference to visit the site to learn more about the company, but there should have been more fdor many of the other companies mentioned in the paper..

On a story, for instance, about US Defense Secretary Rumsfield going to China today there was no web reference – it was a scenesetter so there had been plenty of time to write the story. So, where was the podcast or video of the two authors discussing Rumsfield’s Asian travel itinerary and what he hoped to achieve? That’s what convergence between print and the web is all about.

It’s obvious editors need to work on this convergence aspect a whole lot more.

The other striking complaint deals with the use of color – there is not near enough. If it is a printing restriction then it is something management needs to get fixed quickly. If it is more an editorial debate then, yes, there should be a lot more use of color.

Those pages with color attract. Those without color do not. It’s as simple as that.  On facing pages 18-19 the paper ran a two-page spread about the boom in China’s interior. Page 18 had three color pictures (which should have been larger or if a lack of room run just two large pictures) and two charts, all in color. It enticed the reader.  Facing on page 19 were three charts and a map of China in black and white and a lot of gray copy. Boring!

The same is true throughout the paper. Because the WSJE runs fairly long stories you have pages or uninviting gray type. There are black and white illustrations but they seem to be mostly at the top or bottom which leaves all that uninviting gray. Some long stories have type inserts where a sentence is set off and printed in a larger font, and they need to do far more of this to break up the gray.  One looks at facing pages 26-27 – all in gray – and one doesn’t even want to get started reading!

But the real problem is that having being spoiled with some color on the front pages and on some of the inside pages, those pages that do not have color really suffer by comparison, and look very uninteresting.

The Journal had the services of Mario Garcia, probably the world’s foremost newspaper redesign expert, but sadly one has to say that this first issue of the WSJE compact is by no means his crowning achievement.

Meanwhile, not to be lost in the hoopla over the new compact, and the fact you can’t get full financial listings there any more, the International Herald Tribune has announced an expansion for its financial pages next month. It will incorporate daily a four-page section of business news compiled by Bloomberg.

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