Tag Archives: Wall Street Journal
WSJ launches index of influential New Yorkers
by Chris Roush
The Wall Street Journal announced Monday the launch of NYIndex, an interactive, dynamically updating list of influential New Yorkers.
Encompassing power players in all of the city’s major sectors, from finance to fashion, education to entertainment, and powered by real-time data from Factiva, one of the world’s most comprehensive databases of news, the NYIndex uses frequency and context of media mentions, among other factors, to determine the rankings.
A special four-page section highlighting the 10 sectors of rankings appears in the Greater New York section on Monday with profiles from Journal contributors including Jason Gay, Ralph Gardner Jr., Sumathi Reddy, Pia Catton, and Anne Kadet.
The NYIndex rankings of influential New Yorkers, which will be updated online every Monday, include interactive components showcasing the biggest jumps and drops on the list.
In parallel with the Factiva-generated list is ‘People’s Picks,’ generated entirely by readers’ votes, and appearing alongside the main Index. A mobile-optimized webpage, People’s Picks enables readers to vote and to easily share their choices across social networks. The top vote getters are displayed each week as People’s Picks, denoted with a thumbs-up icon.
WSJ London reporter moving to Moscow
by Chris Roush
Wall Street Journal Moscow bureau chief Greg White sent out the following staff announcement on Friday:
We’re excited to announce that Paul Sonne will be joining the combined DJN/WSJ bureau in Moscow as a reporter in mid-March, covering the full range of wackiness that is known to locals as “Russian reality.”
Paul is heading East after nearly four years in the London Bureau, where he covered corporate and general news. He helped spearhead the Censorship Inc. series that won the Overseas Press Club’s Malcom Forbes Award for International Business Reporting, in between reporting on Julian Assange’s courtroom travails, the phone-hacking scandal, and multi-billion dollar corporate takeovers. His story about the flawed medical prognosis that freed the Lockerbie bomber from jail led to a U.S. Senate hearing on the matter, and his investigative report with Meg Coker on Moammar Gadhafi’s Internet-spying operation prompted a French judicial probe into corporate complicity in torture. Paul’s a-heds have led him to attend Britain’s Loo of the Year contest, sympathize with animals stranded by the Eyjafjallajukull volcano, locate the woman last in line to the British throne, and travel the Thames with Her Majesty the Queen’s Swan Marker.
Having grown up in Albany, New York, Paul is particularly equipped to handle Moscow’s inclement weather, grey skies and lumbering bureaucracy. Despite a half-decade detour in the British Isles, he is no stranger to Russia. He majored in Russian literature at Columbia, received a master’s degree in Russian history and politics at Oxford, and spent time at the AP and New York Times bureaux in Moscow before joining the Journal.
WSJ names new LA bureau chief
by Chris Roush
Gerard Baker, the managing editor of The Wall Street Journal, sent out the following staff announcement on Wednesday afternoon:
I’m delighted to announce that Ethan Smith is appointed Los Angeles bureau chief.
Ethan is admirably qualified to take the helm of a bureau that is both the center of the global entertainment industry and the largest metropolis of the US’s most populous, prosperous and complex state.
A veteran music industry reporter, Ethan has been with the Journal since 2003. He has composed some memorable and mellifluous scoops, from the Ticketmaster-Live Nation merger to the Beatles’ long-awaited deal to sell their music on iTunes. He has worked as a deputy in the bureau since 2009 and has done a formidable job running the bureau on an interim basis since September.
Prior to joining the Journal, Ethan worked on the staffs of several magazines, including the Industry Standard, New York, Entertainment Weekly and Sassy. He grew up in New York and attended Williams College and now lives in LA with his wife, Heather, and two (soon to be three) sons.
WSJ reporters encouraged to writer shorter, funnier
by Chris Roush
Michael Calderone of The Huffington Post writes about how Wall Street Journal reporters are being encouraged to write shorter and funnier stories.
Calderone writes, “National editor Jennifer Forsyth instructed colleagues this week to ‘please have your reporters who write primarily for usnews to please look for spot news, short sidebars and fun brites that could run in the 250 to 350 word range.’
“‘Our bosses want the section to be chock full of news, not all longer features,’ Forsyth wrote in the memo, obtained by The Huffington Post. ‘This really shouldn’t be hard. Most reporters can dash off a brief from their beats or areas of coverage fairly easily several times a week when they start thinking this way. Some enterprise blog items, for example, could be easily retooled for print.’
“‘Please make sure you’re talking with ALL your reporters who write mostly for usnews,’ she wrote. ‘This effort should be shared equitably. We need to make this happen — starting today.’
“Forsyth mentioned that a ‘more extensive note will be forthcoming.’
“UPDATE 11:29 am: A Journal spokeswoman responds:
‘The length of a story has never been a testament to the quality of The Wall Street Journal. We remain the number one newspaper in the country. From long-form narratives to scoops such as the U.S. lawsuit against S&P to short inside stories, we consistently seek a variety of ways to engage and inform our readers.’”
Read more here.
WSJ seking New Delhi senior reporter
by Chris Roush
Wall Street Journal deputy managing editor Matt Murray sent out the following announcement on Tuesday:
The New Delhi bureau is looking for a senior writer to focus on breaking news and enterprise features, focusing on the highest-impact articles for all channels.
The range of the job is vast and its primary role is to bring to life corporate and general news that is exclusive, in fact or thought, for all of our audiences, including our growing Indian readership. We are seeking a reporter who can craft a beautiful feature for page one, break a corporate news Urgent, spin off posts for India Real Time, appear on video and take a leading role in shaping our overall coverage of the world’s largest democracy.
Familiarity with Hindi or another Indian language is desirable but not mandatory. But the ability to deliver mark-up, well-crafted copy is a must. At least five years reporting experience is required. And the candidate, who will be based in New Delhi, should be flexible enough, in attitude and talent, to lead coverage on as wide a range of issues as a country of 1.2 billion people with more than a dozen official languages, 28 states, seven major religions, two global technology centers and the ambition to be a global superpower might require.
Interested candidates should contact Paul Beckett, Matt Murray or Rebecca Blumenstein.
A first look at the new WSJ. editor
by Chris Roush
Erik Maza of Women’s Wear Daily profiles Kristina O’Neill, the new editor of WSJ., the Wall Street Journal magazine.
Maza writes, “She is the editor next door. Easy-going, with an all-American smile, she’s a 36-year-old wife and mother who lives in Brooklyn Heights. On weekends, you might spot her at Monty’s, a greasy pizzeria in her neighborhood, with her six-year-old daughter. Although she’s worked for some big personalities — as Candace Bushnell’s assistant at the New York Observer and then, at Bazaar, as a staffer under Kate Betts, and rising to executive editor under Glenda Bailey — she is much more low key.
“Says Bushnell, ‘Even when she was working for me, she always said she wanted to get married and have kids. She wanted her wedding song to be ‘We’ve Only Just Begun’ by the Carpenters. I was writing ‘Sex and the City,’ and thinking, ‘Good luck!’ Sure enough, the kid gets married.’
“Her understated persona is perhaps what made her an attractive candidate to take over a magazine that needed to coexist with, not upstage, the Journal’s panoply of luxury sections.
“‘It comes wrapped up in the paper but for our millions of readers it’s one of the courses in the multicourse meal we serve them,’ said Mike Miller, the senior deputy managing editor who hired O’Neill.
“She understands this, too. She said one of her missions has been to bridge the gap between the magazine and the daily broadsheet.”
Read more here.
WSJ puts Journal Reports online
by Chris Roush
The Wall Street Journal announced Monday the debut of a full digital platform for Journal Reports, the franchise that has offered probing journalism in print for three decades.
The new platform, now called Journal Report, integrates the traditional in-depth features of the print edition with the most experimental and interactive features of digital journalism to build communities and increase conversation around the Report’s coverage.
As part of the new integrated digital platform, Journal Report has assembled an elite group of approximately 100 industry influencers and thought leaders called “The Experts” to generate probing and insightful online dialogue with readers through live blogs and social video, including Google+ Hangouts
“We’re thrilled and humbled to have assembled some of the most respected and talented leaders in the country to anchor the communities and conversations we’ll be building through our new integrated Journal Report platform,” said Larry Rout, Wall Street Journal senior editor who oversees the Reports. “This platform allows us to provide the most optimized and interactive experience to keep our readers as informed as they are engaged.”
In addition to the launch of Journal Report’s digital platform, the print edition, which plans to publish some 60 reports this year as standalone sections in the Journal, has undergone a redesign over the past month featuring new columns and a more graphic-intensive presentation. To provide readers with a fully integrated experience, future print issues will incorporate highlights from the online dialogue generated by the Experts. This new integrated print and digital platform is the latest evolution of the Journal’s ongoing commitment to provide an exclusive forum for readers to engage with the Journal’s extensive network of influencers.
Each Journal Report will fall into one of six verticals – small business, retirement, leadership, energy, health care, and wealth management.
WSJ makes changes in DC bureau
by Chris Roush
Wall Street Journal Washington bureau chief Jerry Seib sent out he following staff announcement:
I’m happy to announce some shifts within the bureau, which will align us to better handle the rapidly changing world of Washington in the wake of the election. Some of these changes have been evolving for several weeks, and some are only starting now, so let me wrap them into one package.
As you all know, Sara Murray, in the wake of her successful coverage of the Romney campaign has joined our Hill coverage team for the foreseeable future.
In addition, Kristina Peterson also will be joining the Hill team, taking the place of Naftali Bendavid, who now is enjoying fine chocolates on a daily basis in Brussels. Kristina has done a previous stint on the Hill, and this returns her to the scene of those past glories. The addition of Sara and Kristina is an acknowledgement that the Hill promises to be a hotbed of both political and policy action this year; for the same reason, Patrick O’Connor also will continue to focus his energies there. Those folks, along with Janet Hook, our rock on the Hill, as well as Corey Boles and Siobhan Hughes, give us the best and most robust team covering Congress of any news organization in town.
Taking Kristina’s place on the crucially important Fed beat will be Vicki McGrane. This move is a logical progression from her fine work covering financial regulation. She’ll work closely with Jon Hilsenrath in this key area, just as Kristina did.
And taking Vicki’s place on financial regulation will be Mike Crittenden. Mike also is returning to an area where he’s worked in the past, and we’re lucky to be able to take advantage of his experience in an area that will be hopping as the implications of Dodd-Frank and the Volcker rippled out across the economy.
Please join me in cheering on our colleagues in their new assignments.
Wall Street Journal computers hacked by Chinese
by Chris Roush
The Wall Street Journal said its computer systems had been infiltrated by Chinese hackers for the apparent purpose of monitoring the newspaper’s China coverage.
Siobhan Gorman, Devlin Barrett and Danny Yadron of The Journal write, “‘Evidence shows that infiltration efforts target the monitoring of the Journal’s coverage of China, and are not an attempt to gain commercial advantage or to misappropriate customer information,’ Paula Keve, chief spokeswoman for the Journal’s parent company, Dow Jones & Co., said in a written statement Thursday. Dow Jones is a unit of News Corp.
“The infiltration of networks related to coverage of China is an ‘ongoing issue,’ Ms. Keve said. ‘We continue to work closely with the authorities and outside security specialists, taking extensive measures to protect our customers, employees, journalists and sources.’
“She said the Journal on Thursday completed a network overhaul to bolster security. ‘We fully intend to continue the aggressive and independent journalism for which we are known,’ she said.
“One of the ways the hackers penetrated the paper’s computer system was through its Beijing bureau, people familiar with The Wall Street Journal incident said.
“The statement didn’t address how the hacking occurred. The paper has faced hacking threats from China on and off during the past few years.”
Read more here.
U.S. economic growth stalls
by Liz Hester
The news for the U.S. economy wasn’t good on Wednesday as domestic growth stalled. An increase in retail sales in the fourth quarter wasn’t enough to offset the biggest drop in government spending since 1973, according to the Wall Street Journal.
What’s interesting is that the major business media interpreted the results differently.
Here’s The Journal’s take on the matter:
U.S. economic momentum screeched to a halt in the final months of 2012, as lawmakers’ struggle to reach a deal on tax increases and budget cuts likely led businesses to pare inventories and the government to cut spending.
The nation’s gross domestic product shrank for the first time in 3 1/2 years during the fourth quarter, declining at an annual rate of 0.1% between October and December, the Commerce Department said Wednesday.
It was the first time the broad measure of all goods and services produced by the economy contracted since the recovery from the financial crisis began. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires had expected 1.0% annualized growth.
The decline reflects worries about the so-called fiscal cliff. The economy reversed from a 3.1% pace of growth in the third quarter largely because federal government spending fell by 15% and private business, likely fearing slack in demand, let inventories dwindle.
The New York Times took a more moderated approach at the beginning of their story, saying the indicators weren’t enough to push the economy back into a recession.
The drop in gross domestic product was driven by a plunge in military spending, as well as fewer exports and a steep slowdown in the buildup of inventories by businesses. Anxieties about the fiscal impasse in Washington also contributed to the slowdown, one reason stockpiles grew more slowly.
Despite the overall contraction, there was underlying data in the report suggesting the economy is not on the brink of a recession or an extended slump. Residential investment jumped 15.3 percent, a sign that the housing sector continues to recover, for one. Similarly, investment in equipment and software by businesses rose 12.4 percent, an indicator that companies are still spending. Although economists expected output to decline substantially from the 3.1 percent annual growth rate recorded in the third quarter, the negative number still caught Wall Street off-guard. It was the weakest economic report since the second quarter of 2009.
“I’m a little surprised,” said Michael Feroli, chief United States economist at JPMorgan. “It grabs your attention when you have a negative number across everyone’s screens.”
Stocks were down only slightly in early trading on Wall Street, as some traders shrugged off the unexpected drop.
Mr. Feroli had been expecting growth to come in at 0.4 percent, which was well below the 1.1 percent consensus among economists on Wall Street. Like some other observers, Mr. Feroli said there were hints the economy was performing slightly better than the headline number suggested.
The 22.2 percent drop in military spending – the sharpest quarterly drop in more than four decades – along with the drop in inventories and exports overwhelmed more positive indicators in the private sector, he said.
For example, final sales to private domestic purchasers, which strips out government spending as well as trade and inventories, rose by 2.8 percent. “Consumers and businesses kept spending at a pretty steady pace,” Mr. Feroli said. “There was a lot of noise that moved the headline around.” For the entire year, the economy grew by 2.2 percent, a slight improvement from the 1.8 percent annual rate in 2011.
Bloomberg points out there was some good news for durable goods, especially auto manufacturers.
Consumer spending, which accounts for about 70 percent of the economy, expanded at a 2.2 percent annual rate last quarter, up from 1.6 percent in the previous three months, today’s report showed. Purchases of durable goods, including automobiles, climbed at a 13.9 percent rate, the most in two years.
Cars and light trucks sold at a 15.3 million annual rate in December after a 15.5 million pace the prior month, the best back-to-back showing since early 2008, data from Ward’s Automotive Group showed earlier this month.
A jump in pay may have helped consumers. After-tax income rose at a 6.8 percent annual rate from October through December, the biggest increase since the second quarter of 2008, today’s report showed.
In addition to improving wages and salaries, some companies also paid dividends and employee bonuses earlier than usual before tax rates went up this year. The Commerce Department estimated that about $26.4 billion of the increase in incomes was attributable to early dividend payments and another $15 billion reflected bonuses and other types of irregular pay.
The gain in consumer spending may be difficult to sustain this quarter as a tax increase takes a bigger chunk from earnings. Congress on Jan. 1 let the payroll tax revert to 6.2 percent from 4.2 percent while avoiding broad-based income tax increases. Lawmakers are now wrangling over spending reductions scheduled for March 1 that threaten to further slow the economy.
While the market was down slightly, it didn’t see the huge sell-off that news like this can sometimes bring, indicating that traders and money managers aren’t expecting a huge economic decline. Let’s hope they’re right.
