Tag Archives: Wall Street Journal
WSJ remains country’s largest newspaper
by Chris Roush
The Wall Street Journal remains the top daily newspaper in the country with a total average circulation of 2,378,827 (March 2013), a 12.3 percent increase from 2,118,315 (March 2012), according to the latest figures released by the Alliance for Audited Media.
The Journal’s digital circulation increased 62.6 percent to 898,102 (March 2013), up from 552,288 (March 2012).
The Journal’s total average circulation for WSJ Weekend increased 15.8 percent to 2,406,332 (March 2013), up from 2,078,564 (March 2012). In addition, single copy sales for WSJ Weekend increased 0.8 percent to 81,803 (March 2013) from 81,125 (March 2012).
The Journal debuted an expanded weekend edition in September 2010 and last year announced an increase in frequency of WSJ. Magazine to 11 times per year, which appears as part of the Weekend edition.
The New York Times is now No. 2, passing USA Today.
WSJ pushing more Internet TV
by Chris Roush
Todd Spangler of Variety writes Tuesday about The Wall Street Journal‘s big push into producing more Internet television content.
Spangler writes, “Company also highlighted WSJ Custom Studios, which will work with advertisers to create specialized video segments with integrated brand placement. And data-crunching tools to let marketers target auds is central to WSJ’s sales pitch.
“‘We’re not just a content company,’ said Dow Jones & Co. topper Lex Fenwick, also WSJ’s publisher. ‘We are starting on WSJ.com to build not only great content, but a platform… to build information about the customers that come and read our content.’
“Key rival for the Journal is Bloomberg, which similarly has ramped online video production — and unlike WSJ has foothold in cable with Bloomberg TV.
“The Wall Street Journal currently creates more than 100 hours of original content per month, across 30 platforms. Its online video properties now deliver about 21 million streams per month, per Omniture.”
Read more here.
Hubbard leaves WSJ Digital Network
by Chris Roush
Kelsey Hubbard, an anchor and reporter for The Wall Street Journal’s online programs, has left the company.
Hubbard has been with the company for nearly six years, hosting live WSJ programming, including, “The News Hub,” “Lunchbreak,” “Digits” and breaking news.
Hubbard also reported and producted video segments for WSJ Live, WSJ YouTube Channel and Marketwatch.com on topics including business news, entertainment news, life and
style, real estate and pop culture.
She also contributed written stories to The Wall Street Journal Off Duty section, Speakeasy blog and Marketwatch.com.
In an email to Journal colleagues, Hubbard wrote Monday afternoon, “It has been wonderful working with so many of you and I consider myself very lucky to have had the chance to work with the best people in journalism. I am especially proud of the WSJ Video team and all we have accomplished over the years.”
Hubbard was also a freelance correspondent for CNN and ABC. And she was a segment reporter for BusinessWeek MoneyTalks, a weekly personal finance show that aired nationwide, from 2000 to 2004.
WSJ names Pensiero as editor of talent
by Chris Roush
Wall Street Journal managing editor Gerard Baker sent out the following staff promotion on Monday afternoon:
I’m pleased to announce that Jim Pensiero is appointed Editor, Talent.
In this vital new role, Jim will oversee the hiring, development and training of staff throughout our integrated news organization, and will lead the investment in human capital that will be crucial to our continued success.
Jim is well suited to this role, as someone who knows the staff of the Journal and Dow Jones Newswires perhaps better than anyone. He will work closely with top editors to ensure that we have the right people in the right places. He will report to me.
Training will be of special importance in Jim’s new responsibilities, to make certain that our peerless (but still sometimes slightly fusty) news organization advances in the digital age and as we ask you to take on new duties. He will retain his responsibility for technology operations related to Methode—including the planned installation of new Methode systems in London and Hong Kong.
Jim has been one of this news organization’s most accomplished and trusted figures for nearly 30 years. Most recently, he served as editor-in-chief for DJ FX Trader. He has been a deputy managing editor of the Journal since June 2008 and before that worked in a variety of positions that read like a compendium of editorial leadership: the Journal’s night news editor; assistant national news editor; deputy national editor; assistant managing editor; assistant publisher; vice president of special projects and vice president of news operations.
Jim is widely acknowledged for his steadfast and selfless leadership on Sept. 11, 2001 and his fast thinking was critical to the Wall Street Journal’s ability to publish its historic paper the next day. He started his journalism career in Passaic, NJ, and Philadelphia and worked at the Associated Press before joining the Journal as a copy editor in 1984.
WSJ to run startup documentary series on website
by Chris Roush
The Wall Street Journal will be launching ‘WSJ Startup of the Year,’ an episodic video documentary for WSJ Live, the Journal’s online video platform.
Slated to premiere June 24, the documentary matches global business leaders and influencers with 25 innovative startups, capturing their stories from startup to success during the course of five months. Throughout the documentary, editors from The Journal, working closely with mentors and considering viewer votes, will narrow down the businesses to decide who will be the Journal’s first ‘Startup of the Year.’
The Journal has engaged nearly 30 business leaders and influencers to mentor entrepreneurs participating in the series. Startup of the Year is WSJ Live’s most expansive foray into original content programming to date.
The initial 25 startups will be announced in coming weeks. Each has been chosen by Journal editors, are based in the U.S., have a prototype or proof of concept in place, and less than $10 million in revenue.
WSJ Live is currently available on 30 platforms and generates on average between 20 and 25 million streams per month.
Read more here.
WSJ debunks itself on labor and disability
by Chris Roush
The Wall Street Journal has published an article on Monday that has debunked the myth that federal disability benefits are to blame for the shrinking labor force, a claim previously pushed by the paper itself, reports Hannah Groch-Begley of Media Matters for America.
Groch-Begley writes, “An April 29 Journal article headlined “Real Culprit Behind Smaller Workforce: Age” explained that the recent decrease in the labor force — the number of employed and unemployed Americans who are currently seeking work — ‘has more to do with retiring baby boomers than frustrated job seekers abandoning their searches.’ The article noted that claims that Americans are voluntarily leaving the workforce to receive Disability Insurance instead of working, for example, ‘may be exaggerated,’ and explained that retirees and students made up a far more significant portion of those leaving the labor force. The article included the following graph, showing disability was the least common reason for individuals leaving the workforce in March 2013:
“However, the Journal has previously pushed the myth that Disability Insurance accounted for much of the dropping labor force participation rate. An April 10 article headlined ‘Workers Stuck in Disability Stunt Economic Recovery’ claimed that workers receiving disability benefits were costing the economy billions by not instead participating in the labor force, and quoted economist Michael Feroli’s claim that ‘worker flight to the Social Security Disability Insurance program accounts for as much as a quarter of the puzzling drop in participation rates, a labor exodus with far-reaching economic consequences.’ These claims are in direct contradiction to the Journal’s most recent reporting.”
Read more here.
Overseas Press Club names biz journalism winners
by Chris Roush
The Overseas Press Club named its 74th annual winners for the OPC Awards, and several are business journalism.
Jeremy Page of The Wall Street Journal won the Bob Considine Award for best newspaper or wire service interpretation of international affairs for his stories about the mysterious death of a British businessman, but provided startling glimpses into the life of one of China’s leading Communist Party bosses before he was fired in disgrace, as well as a look at the privileged lifestyles enjoyed by at least some corrupt politicians in today’s China.
The judges wrote, “The stories are notable for depth of reporting, an even presentation of the evidence, and a balanced tone. Nevertheless, taken together, they form a damning case that the wife of Chongqing party leader Bo Xilai may have poisoned businessman and family adviser Neil Heywood, a crime for which she was ultimately convicted. Aside from exposing the political scandal of the year in China, Page interprets the events in light of the power struggles taking place in the country just prior to its once-in-a-decade transfer of leadership.”
Michael Riley, Ashlee Vance with Zoe Schneeweiss of Bloomberg Businessweek won the Frank Morton Award for best business reporting abroad in magazines for their story, “It’s Not Paranoia If They’re Stealing Your Secrets: Inside the Chinese Boom in Corporate Espionage.”
The judges wrote, “This timely, well-written account shows how the unprecedented scale of Chinese corporate espionage and wholesale intellectual property theft is devastating U.S. companies. This strongly sourced story details the plight of American Superconductor Corp. which discovered that Sinovel, a Chinese wind turbine manufacturer that was once its biggest customer, schemed to steal and illegally replicate AMSC’s software and electronic systems to power more than 1,000 Chinese windmills.”
David Barboza of The New York Times won the Malcolm Forbes Award for best newspaper or wire service business reporting abroad for “China’s Secret Fortunes.”
The judges wrote, “David Barboza penetrated to the heart of China’s secretive system to provide an intricate and painstaking chronicle of linkages between the Communist Party’s most powerful families and the government’s state-owned enterprises and investments. The fact that The New York Times placed all four parts of the series on its front page helped change the world’s debate about the structure of power and wealth in China. Barboza and the newspaper took large risks in exposing the wealth that China’s top families have accumulated. The Times later reported that Chinese hackers persistently attacked the publication’s computer systems during the reporting for this series.”
Michael Forsythe, Shai Oster, Natasha Khan, Dune Lawrence, Ben Richardson and Henry Sanderson of Bloomberg News won for Best Investigative Reporting in any medium for “Revolution to Riches.”
The judges wrote, “Through painstaking analysis of the families of Xi Jinping and the so-called ‘Eight Immortals’ and ingenious scrutiny of regulatory filings to trace holding companies to these families, the reporters were able to demonstrate for the first time how China’s elite have used political influence for enormous personal gain. In the process, they have fundamentally changed our understanding of the Chinese state.”
See all of the winners here.
Leger retiring from Wall Street Journal
by Chris Roush
John Leger, a news editor for The Wall Street Journal who has worked for Dow Jones & Co. for three decades, is retiring.
Most recently, Leger has been overseeing Journal Reports on wealth management, philanthropy, country reports and The Wall Street Journal’s annual Technology Innovation Awards. He was also one of the original editors at The Wall Street Journal Europe and former deputy bureau chief in London.
In an email Tuesday afternoon to his colleagues, Leger writes:
Over the Christmas holidays many years ago, an Indiana University student from Louisville, Ky., received a telegram. Congratulations, it said. You have been selected for a Dow Jones Newspaper Fund editing internship. Next summer you’ll be working at…..The Wall Street Journal, New York.
And so began an incredible journey that would last for nearly four decades and take me all over the world. Today that journey ends. I am retiring to, you know, do what retirees are supposed to do: play shuffleboard. Go to dinner at 5 pm for the senior special. Take Viagra. Watch cat videos. Move my lips while reading. Buy a lifetime supply of Preparation H. Call into talk radio: “…And I tell ya another thing. And..uh, uh, I lost my train of thought…”
Well, I’m not planning to do any of that (except watch cat videos). I’m exploring all kinds of fun possibilities. And I’ll be doing whatever I can to support the Princeton University Art Museum and Library as well as L’Avant-Scene, the French theatre workshop at Princeton.
But before I do, I’d like to express my deep gratitude, especially to those who have given me such extraordinary opportunities:
The Dow Jones Newspaper (now News) Fund, for selecting me and assigning me to the Journal.
John Kelliher, the copydesk chief who guided my way that summer AND tracked me down the following summer to offer me a job for when I graduated.
Norm Pearlstine, for bringing me to Brussels right before he started up The Wall Street Journal Europe. What an amazing experience working with such extraordinary journalists as Norm, John Huey, John Geddes, Matt Winkler, Marty Schenker and many others. And, of course, all those who followed in their footsteps, such as Bob Keatley, Urban Lehner, Bill Casey, Phil Revzin, Fred Kempe, Rich Hudson, Raju Narisetti and Tracy Corrigan, to name just a few.
Karen Pensiero and Al Anspaugh. They know why.
Gordon Crovitz and Nayan Chanda, for bringing me to Hong Kong for my next adventure: working at the Far Eastern Economic Review.
Karen House, for supporting me at key moments in my career.
Rupert Murdoch, for investing in Dow Jones and the Journal. Just look at all these great new sections and all the amazing talent we’ve hired. And as someone who worked 20 years outside the U.S., I’m deeply grateful for the vast expansion of our international news coverage (for which we deserve numerous Pulitzer Prizes).
The truly great Larry Rout, editor of Journal Reports. I’ve worked with Larry for more than 10 years but it occurred to me only recently that I’m actually one of the newer members of his group. Others have been with Larry for much longer. That should tell you something about how he inspires such dedication and why so many people want to work for him.
All of you, especially my fabulous colleagues in Journal Reports and everyone who has ever written for my reports over the years.
WSJ editor praises Boston coverage
by Chris Roush
Wall Street Journal managing editor Gerard Baker sent out the following email to the staff on Tuesday morning:
Few stories in recent years have been as immanent in their scope or as diffuse in their provenance and ramifications as the events that unfolded in Boston last week.
From the moment the explosions occurred at the Marathon last Monday, right up to yesterday’s breakthrough story on the bomber’s family, Wall Street Journal staff converged from all corners to produce some of the finest breaking news coverage anywhere.
Reporters, editors, photographic staff, designers and others threw themselves at this story – often spontaneously, without waiting to be asked or assigned, generously offering their time and reporting resources.
Critical contributions came from Boston itself, Washington DC, Atlanta, Chicago, Canada, London, Moscow, Beijing and elsewhere. In New York, teams from Greater New York, Business News,
Financial News, the Sports and Law groups pitched in too.You all combined to support peerless coverage on our digital platforms, through social media, with video, graphics and compelling photography, and of course in print.
The commitment has been unstinting and the efforts indefatigable. I am especially gratified that our reporting of such a rapidly evolving story was at all times diligent, sober and rigorous. As wild rumor and unreliable internet gossip quickly became headline news, we stuck to the standards that serve our readers: proper sourcing, verified reporting and accurate and rigorous editing.
All this in the face of a story that was both emotionally intense and prolonged. Many staff worked right through the night last Thursday as the pursuit of the suspects unfolded and on through the next day and night.
It is always invidious to attempt to single out any individuals but we owe very special thanks to some in particular.
– Jennifer Levitz, Jon Kamp, Lisa Fleisher and Andrew Grossman responded right away on Monday and stepped in during the crucial hours when the story was breaking.
–Josh Dawsey was everywhere all the time, filing, digging up records and landing interviews. Jennifer Smith and Pervaiz Shallwani also were among the many on the ground who distinguished themselves; Pervaiz pulling an all-nighter during Thursday night and Friday morning’s dramatic events;
–In DC, Evan Perez and Devlin Barrett pressed on their sources all week (while also dogging the ricin story), and pulled all-nighters themselves;
–In Russia, Alan Cullison and Paul Sonne jumped into action when the connection to Dagestan became clear, making inroads with the family that no other organization could approach.Among editors, Betsy McKay of Atlanta and Kirsten Danis and Michael Amon of Greater New York, worked tirelessly with reporters, shaping our stories and guiding our reporters in the field with elegance and wisdom; the DC editing team, especially Peter Landers and Matthew Rose, showed great judgment and presence of mind amid chaotic events while shepherding vast amounts of copy; Bruce Orwall stepped in to orchestrate the masterful leder on the family and help organize coverage as the story crossed the Atlantic; and the web team, led by Sheila Courter, Christine Glancey, Brian Fitzgerald and Jennifer Hicks, kept the web site lively and engaging all week. The master of ceremonies, Jennifer Forsyth, balanced all of it — and Texas and ricin — with the insight and aplomb that have made the Wall Street Journal a serious player in US News in a way it had never been before.
Thanks to your commitment, perseverance, rigor and judgment, we demonstrated we can cover these stores as comprehensively as anyone and more accurately, more sharply and more intelligently than the rest.
WSJ’s Brewster leaving paper for parent company
by Chris Roush
Wall Street Journal deputy managing editor Deborah Brewster, who overees hiring and recruiting at the paper, is leaving for a job at the paper’s new parent company.
Here is the announcement Friday from managing editor Gerard Baker:
After four highly productive years at Dow Jones, Deborah Brewster is leaving us to take up a senior position in the new NewsCorp.
Deborah has been a stalwart and trusted member of our leadership team, a deputy managing editor who has executed with great aplomb and dispatch her twin roles: overseeing the management of human talent across the newsroom, and leading our graphics, art direction and photography teams. She has also been a source of impeccable judgment and wise counsel on many other areas of importance and she will be greatly missed. Before joining Dow Jones, Deborah had already had a long and distinguished career in journalism in Australia and the United States. Fortunately for us, of course, she is not going far, and will be taking that experience and talent upstairs. I look forward to collaborating further with her as we work to make the new company the best publishing business in the world.
I will be announcing a successor shortly but please join me in thanking Deborah for her contribution to Dow Jones’s great progress in the last three years and in wishing her even more success in her new role.
