Lessons learned from
the Wall Street Journal redesign
By Marty Steffens
SABEW Chair
(Editor's Note: This is
the fifth in a series of articles covering the Fall SABEW
conference, being held at the University of North Carolina-Chapel
Hill on Oct. 20-21.)
We’re live at the SABEW
workshop on the University of North Carolina campus in Chapel
Hill.
Wall
Street Journal publisher Gordon Crovitz
spoke at lunch on Sunday about what the paper learned from
its redesign, which was launched earlier this year.
- Despite the tradition of the wide broadsheet
paper, many applauded the narrower Journal, which debuts
in early 2007.
- Use the right media at the right time.
Our web and alerts reports what’s going on now,
and the newspaper has what it really means.
- Readers do notice the subtle things ---
like the summary headlines we now use on longer features.
- WSJ needs to keep the scoops, even if
they appear first on other Dow Jones products like the
newswires, or Marketwatch, because they are unique. We
need to keep business scoops and scoops of access (like
interviewing former Fed chief Alan Greenspan)
- We need to keep the quirky stuff, like
the A-Hed.
- The demanding consumers will give you
black marks you for telling him something he or she already
knows. Legendary WSJ managing editor Barney Kilgore was
right – you have to tell readers what it means,
not that it happened.
- You have to organize the newsroom to
reflect the new news realities.
- Content is king – but even kings
cannot thrive on a island, so websites need video and
other adornments.
- Strong business models are required
for news franchises to thrive. All of us have to figure
out how to stay in business and afford quality journalism.
- What is working – print subscriptions
are up 5 percent, WSJ.com now at 989,000 paying subscribers
and 10 million monthly unique visitors. It’s now
the largest paid newspaper site in the world.
- Blogs are essential for those who want
to know more, and we have lots. A great success is our
law blog. His blog now reaches more lawyers than any legal
publication. Blogs can also grow into premium content,
with an additional content fee.
- Print is still a powerful ad medium,
and selling ads on the front page of WSJ is valuable real
estate. We are sold out a year in advance. Every day we
have an ad on the front page of the Journal, we pay a
year’s salary for a senior reporter.
- And as for conflict with news, the first
day of the front page ad, the story was on Hewlett-Packard
snooping on the news media, and HP had the ad. Not all
advertisers would be willing to withstand that kind of
adjacency.
Posted Oct. 21, 2007
