Tuesday, January 02, 2007

Eyecandy on a diet? The redesigned Wall Street Journal

The slimmer but thicker Wall Street Journal made its debut this morning. And the verdict is here: I don't like it. This is a capitulation to the elusive young reader of the modern world, namely a person who doesn't read much to start with. Institutions like the WSJ should change only modestly, not radically.

The new design leaves about 10 percent less space for news stories, but half of that loss is being made up by cutting back on the amount of stock tables and other statistical data in the paper. Along with the changes in the print version unveiled Tuesday the Journal also launched a more robust online feature for tracking financial markets, http://www.WSJMarkets.com.

As part of a promotional campaign, the Journal is making about half a million copies of the paper free on newsstands on Tuesday and opening up its Web site, WSJ.com, to non-subscribers for the day. Many of the changes are aimed at bringing in younger readers with an easier-to-read presentation of news.

"Readers told us that the Journal could better tailor its efforts to how, when and where you access news," Gordon Crovitz, the Journal's publisher, said in a letter to readers.

As for the reduced size, Crovitz said, "the almost unanimous reaction among readers in focus groups was that this would make the newspaper more convenient and literally handier."

I still don't like it. The focus groups are wrong. I'm surprised the WSJ has been pandering to a demographic that doesn't seem like it wants to spend an hour a day with a substantial newspaper.

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