Tag Archives: Wall Street Journal
Columbia to honor former WSJ ME Steiger
by Chris Roush
Columbia University announced Monday that it will bestow an honorary doctorate on former Wall Street Journal managing editor Paul Steiger.
In its release, Columbia stated:
After 46 years as a newspaper reporter and editor, Steiger became, in 2008, the founder, editor-in-chief, and president of ProPublica, an independent, non-profit newsroom that produces journalism in the public interest. During his 16 years as managing editor of The Wall Street Journal, members of its newsroom staff won 16 Pulitzer Prizes. During a period of marked decline in reporting resources in much of the American news media, ProPublica focuses on important stories of accountability journalism. Its reporters won the first Pulitzer Prize for a Web-based news organization in 2010, and the first for work published only online in 2011.
Here is a Q&A that we did with Steiger back in 2009 about his career in business journalism.
WSJ names new markets desk staffer
by Chris Roush
Tim Annett, the acting chief of The Wall Street Journal‘s markets coverage, sent out the following announcement on Tuesday morning:
It’s not often that we get a chance to bring someone back for an encore. But I’m delighted to announce that Michael Driscoll will be rejoining the Markets desk starting today after a successful stint running stock-market coverage for Dow Jones Newswires.
Michael is a careful and shrewd editor, a terrific headline writer and an expert on Journal style. Since leaving the Markets desk last year, he’s steered the stock-market team at the wires through the rains of Sandy and the storm of a new all-time high in the DJIA, and helped break news on a number of fronts. His experience on the wires will be a tremendous asset to the desk as we continue to integrate the newsroom.
In his second tour with us, Michael will have a special focus on coordinating the desk’s handling of big ongoing news stories (think the Galleon case or stock-market milestones). He’ll work closely with our real-time tandem of Lora Western and Bradley Davis and the rest of our team to tie together online and print presentation of our section’s biggest projects.
Please join me in congratulating Michael and in welcoming him back to the sixth floor.
WSJ launches Turkish language site
by Chris Roush
The Wall Street Journal launched a Turkish language website, The Wall Street Journal Türkiye, on Tuesday.
The Turkish launch brings the total number of Wall Street Journal websites to 12 in nine languages, three of which launched in 2012: German, Korean and Bahasa Indonesian. The sites are edited locally to provide readers with a regionally focused offering while giving advertisers a seamless global solution to reach The Journal’s influential audience worldwide.
“Our relentless growth across continents and countries means that Wall Street Journal readers can now access our content via a dozen different sites, choosing a language to suit their needs,” said Lex Fenwick, chief executive officer of Dow Jones & Co. and publisher of The Journal, in a statement. “We’re confident that the breadth and depth of the Journal’s content will deliver value to an expanding group of readers worldwide.”
News and analysis produced by the Dow Jones network of 2,000 journalists in more than 50 countries worldwide is now accessed by an expanding global audience in some of the world’s fastest growing markets. In 2008, foreign language sites made up 5 percent of WSJ.com’s page views, so far this year they make up 21 percent. In addition, page views in the countries where the sites are based grew on average 17 percent last year.
Cüneyt Toros is editor-in-chief of The Wall Street Journal Türkiye, overseeing a team of reporters and translators based in Istanbul. Previously deputy editor-in-chief at CNBC-e, Mr. Toros has a wealth of media experience in Turkey, including senior editorial roles at Sabah and HaberTürk.
WSJ pulls article from website after error
by Chris Roush
The Wall Street Journal has pulled an article from its website that ran in the paper earlier this week due to an error.
The correction online currently states:
The article “Grant Flows to Troubled Nonprofit,” originally published on March 25, has been removed because it was incorrect.
The Ridgewood Bushwick Senior Citizens Council isn’t slated to receive a “member item” grant –an earmark with an anonymous sponsor slated for a nonprofit group – of nearly $2 million under New York’s latest budget deal, as was erroneously reported in the article. That grant was, in fact, made in 1994 and was used by the council to build a youth center in 2004. The article incorrectly said that the grant is new and was expected to be made this year. The entire article, including the reaction and analysis, was based on this incorrect factual premise.
The author of the article was Laura Nahmias. Her LinkedIn page lists her as a “contributing reporter” to The Journal since October 2012.
The WSJ app for reporters shooting video with phones
by Chris Roush
Caroline O’Donovan of The Nieman Journalism Lab writes Thursday about a proprietary application developed for Wall Street Journal reporters that allows them to shoot videos for the business newspaper’s website using their phones.
O’Donovan writes, “The Wall Street Journal approached Downing with the idea for a proprietary app that reporters could use as a news gathering tool. With the addition of some analytics tools and a centralized management function that allows editors to quickly vet clips before they’re published, that became WorldStream, which we wrote about in August.
“‘Consumer behavior has become much more accustomed to consuming the news they want as it happens,’ says Downing. ‘The WSJ was trying to be much more in line with real-time news and real-time publishing.’
“More than half a year later, how’s WorldStream working out? The Journal seems pretty happy. On the business side, WorldStream point man and WSJ deputy editor of video Mark Scheffler describes the project as a ‘destination but also a clearinghouse.’ While all of the WSJ’s mobile videos are first published to the feed, many go on to live second lives across a wide variety of platforms. Some clips follow reporters to live broadcast appearances, while others are embedded into article pages and blogs. Andy Regal, the Journal’s head of video production, said that they don’t break out WorldStream views from the newspaper’s overall video numbers, which he said total between 30 and 35 million streams per month.
“That kind of traffic across platforms draws the attention of advertisers. The WSJ says video ads generate ‘premium’ rates, meaning somewhere around $40 to $60 CPM. Says Tim Ware, WSJ director of mobile sales, of the Journal’s broader video strategy: ‘We’re very bullish on the growth of WSJ Live this fiscal year, and thus the growth in video ad revenue. We’re also starting to contemplate some one-off sponsorships within our overarching video coverage of select events and stories.’ (After spending about a total of about an hour on WorldStream, however, I only saw one ad — for a ‘smart document solutions’ company — repeated about a half dozen times.)”
Read more here.
Two biz journalists named to NC Journalism Hall of Fame
by Chris Roush
Two famous business journalists — one for helping blaze a trail for women — have been named to the North Carolina Journalism Hall of Fame.
Wyndham Robertson is the former assistant managing editor of Fortune magazine and former business editor of Time magazine.
After graduating from Hollins College with an economics degree, Robertson worked as a junior analyst in the Economics Department of the Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey before joining Fortune as a researcher and reporter in 1961.
She was elected to Fortune’s board of editors in 1974 and was named assistant managing editor in 1981. She served as business editor of Time magazine from 1982-83 as part of an experimental program in which six Time Inc. editors temporarily switched magazines.
Her work has been honored with awards that include the Gerald M. Loeb Achievement Award for Distinguished Writing on Investment, Finance and Business and the American Journalism Historians Association Award for Breaking Gender Barriers in Journalism and Communication, among others.
Alan Murray, a journalism inductee, is the president of the Pew Research Center. He leads in setting the strategic direction of Pew Research, in consultation with Pew Research leadership, its board and The Pew Charitable Trusts.
Murray was previously deputy managing editor and executive editor, online, for The Wall Street Journal.
He previously served as CNBC’s Washington, D.C., bureau chief and was co-host of “Capital Report with Alan Murray and Gloria Borger.”
While working at CNBC, he wrote the Journal’s weekly “Political Capital” column. Prior to that, he spent a decade as the Washington bureau chief for The Wall Street Journal.
Murray received a bachelor’s degree from the University of North Carolina and a master’s degree from the London School of Economics.
See all of the inductees here.
Do things add up for Thomson Reuters?
by Chris Roush
John Jannarone of The Wall Street Journal writes Wednesday about Thomson Reuters, the parent company of the Reuters financial news service, and whether the company can face up to its competitors.
Jannarone writes, “The chief rival is Bloomberg, whose sales and pricing power held up even through the recession. And while its main service is more expensive than Eikon, many users are hooked on features like Bloomberg’s messaging service, a popular means of communication on Wall Street.
“Smaller rivals include FactSet Research Systems and McGraw-Hill‘s S&P Capital IQ. They focus on services that are often less expensive than Eikon but have enough capabilities for the needs of many users. FactSet’s revenue rose to $806 million in the year through August, from $576 million in 2008. Capital IQ’s revenue from market-data products grew to $610 million in 2012 from $412 million in 2008, Mr. Taylor estimates.
“Even keeping existing Thomson Reuters customers may be tricky, especially if the company tries to convert them to a more-expensive Eikon package. One potential solution of offering discounts to encourage upgrades could erode margins.
“Meanwhile, Thomson Reuters’s legal group, which accounts for about a quarter of revenue and an even higher percentage of profits, is also under pressure. Its cornerstone is Westlaw, a research system for legal professionals.
“As with banks, law firms have looked for ways to save since the recession.”
Read more here.
WSJ names two to its Asian Heard on the Street team
by Chris Roush
Duncan Mavin, the Asia editor for the Heard on the Street section of the Wall Street Journal, sent out the following staff announcement:
I am delighted to announce two additions to the Heard on the Street team in Asia. Abheek Bhattacharya joins from The Wall Street Journal’s editorial page. Aaron Back is moving to the Heard team from his current post as deputy China bureau chief for Dow Jones Newswires in Beijing. Both Abheek and Aaron will be based in Hong Kong.
Abheek was previously a writer for The Journal’s editorial page in Hong Kong, playing a significant role in the section’s insightful coverage of Asian economics and politics. His smart and sometimes provocative work has covered a broad swath of topics including Indian telecoms, Indonesian banking and Chinese macroeconomics. Before joining The Journal, Abheek was based in Mumbai with Mint, where he excelled with editorials on economics and finance. A native of Mumbai, he holds a Bachelor’s degree from Yale University, where he studied intellectual history.
Aaron Back joined Dow Jones Newswires in Singapore, writing on the city state’s banks, property developers and financial markets. He transferred to the Beijing bureau, where he initially turned his keen eye for a great story to China’s burgeoning technology sector, before moving on to lead coverage of the country’s macro-economy and monetary policy. As deputy China bureau chief since 2011, his contribution has been invaluable to The Wall Street Journal/Dow Jones Newswires in China. A native of Denver, Colorado, Aaron studied Economics and East Asian Studies at Johns Hopkins University. He has also studied mandarin Chinese at universities in Taipei and Nanjing.
Please join me in wishing Abheek and Aaron success in their new roles.
Solomon returns to Wall Street Journal
by Chris Roush
Wall Street Journal Washington bureau chief Gerald Seib sent out the following staff announcement on Friday:
I’m delighted to let you all know that Deborah Solomon has returned to her rightful home at The Wall Street Journal. Deb, as you all know, was a top-notch Journal reporter here and in New York before she departed for Bloomberg View. We’re all thrilled that we’ve succeeded in luring her back into the fold.
Deb began her second life at the Journal this week, and will oversee the financial regulatory group. She’ll take on a player-coach role in which she also will look for opportunities to write some of her own pieces in this important area. Her background covering financial and regulatory issues in Washington, as well as her recent editing experience, make her the ideal person to lead our coverage in this important area.
I know you’ll all join me in welcoming Deb back home.
WSJ promotes two to oversee digital ops
by Chris Roush
Wall Street Journal managing editor Gerard Baker has sent out the following staff promotions on Wednesday afternoon:
I’m delighted to announce two new senior appointments that will firmly put digital and real-time news at the center of our integrated newsroom: Tracy Corrigan is promoted to Digital Editor and Stephen Wisnefski is promoted to Real-Time News Editor.
In his new role, Steve will lead the creation later this year of a single global real-time news desk, bringing the WSJ.com home-page management team and the Dow Jones Newswires copy desk under unified leadership. Steve will be the principal digital and real-time news advocate in the newsroom, overseeing nearly 100 real-time editors in New York.
Steve most recently served as the Newswires senior editor in the Americas and also oversaw FX Trader. A native of Chile who grew up in Wisconsin, he joined Dow Jones Newswires in 1997 as a correspondent in São Paulo. During his time with the company, he has served as Brazil bureau chief, Latin America editor, Chicago bureau chief and head of commodities and energy coverage. He will report to Matt Murray.
As Digital Editor, Tracy is tasked with leading the expansion of our flagship digital publication and overseeing development of WSJ.com, mobile platforms, social media, and premium digital initiatives. She and a team of colleagues will soon embark on a redesign of the look and feel of WSJ.com.
Tracy has a rich experience in the digital domain. She was previously the editor of FT.com and most recently oversaw the digital and print editions of The Wall Street Journal in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, The Wall Street Journal Deutschland, as well as Financial News. Prior to that, she was an assistant editor and columnist at the Daily Telegraph and held several senior roles at the Financial Times, including news editor and editor of the Lex column. She worked as a reporter for Dow Jones Newswires in London from 1989 until 1990. She will report to Almar Latour.
Please join me in wishing both Tracy and Steve the best of luck in their important new roles.
