A year after reorganising its newsroom with new systems technology, the ‘Wall Street Journal’ is poised to take advantage of local markets neglected by struggling publishing companies.
Already the paper has put 40 extra journalists into greater New York – “no small commitment,” says deputy managing editor Jim Pensiero – and has created new local sections for it and San Francisco.
These are some of the outcomes of a recent period of “blistering” and accelerating change at the once-grand newspaper, known as the ‘Pravda’ of North America when Pensiero (right) joined in 1984.
“It doesn’t hurt that (since 2007) we have an owner who believes in the power of journalism and isn’t frightened to invest,” he says.
An hour with Pensiero – for a ‘sold out’ session on the IfraExpo stand of systems provider Eidos – was one of the highlights of the trade show, much of it devoted to detailed answers to audience questions.
When he joined, the ‘tools of the trade’ were typewriters and No 2 pencils, the editing process was literally cut and paste, decisions on technology were taken by the engineering department and the kit controlled by production. Workflow hadn’t changed in 60 years, and innovations such as page transmission required changes in State laws.
“But we were selling more than two million newspapers,” says Pensiero.
He says the pace of change had accelerated post-9/11, with 2002 seeing pagination and the consolidation of news editorial and production. “WSJ.com was launched as a separate product in a different office but with no sharing of technology beyond the most rudimentary interfaces. Content largely recycled from the print edition.”
But contrary to current practice at the time, WSJ.com did charge for content: “We were criticised, but it led to a successful business model others now try to emulate,” Pensiero says.
Introduction of ‘WSJ Weekend’ in 2005, and redesigned European and Asian editions, achieved in months, represented “a blistering pace of change for us”, but nothing to what was to come.
“Since the News acquisition in 2007, we have redesigned again, launched a glossy magazine, started the NY and SF local news sections, and relaunched the weekend edition. Change for us – and you all – is fast and furious,” he says. “If you can’t stay ahead of the wave, it sweeps over you.”
The paper’s pioneering Apple iPad app was one of many news ways to make the news and information offering the best in the world: “Mobiles are the area of deep focus – where the real growth is for the foreseeable future.”
Pensiero says when he joined, the newsroom was the most backward, and asks, “Did we pay a price for that stubbornness?”
Change was resisted because the WSJ was very good at what it did – “and that made us complacent” – and there was almost no competition.
“Success is a tonic, but breeds arrogance and risk aversion,” he says.
First serious steps to integrated news and online came in 2005, but “recognising and doing something about it aren’t the same thing,” Pensiero says. “The way we were organised was hurting us and cheating our customers, and emboldening our competitors.
“We wanted to be first, but it was a while before we woke up and made a simple but difficult decision: One newsroom… and if something failed, we tried something else,” he says.
“We recognised we needed different technology, and we have trained and retrained. Since then, we hope we have done away with priority pressure between web and print, our print product is better than ever with increasing circulation and revenues, and our website has more than a million paid subscribers.”
He says the speed of digital has “informed and educated” staff, who now watch and respond to lists of ‘most-read’ stories.
Editors post as stories happen, the iPad app has created a new platform, and videos are achieving almost 10 million views. Managing editor (and editor-in-chief of Dow Jones) Robert Thomson “pushes us relentlessly to launch new products,” including sections with very short deadlines. “We’re still making changes, empowering our staff to think of better ways of presenting content. We want their ideas and are getting them.
“It’s actually quite a fun place to work,” says Pensiero. “The technology has made this possible, but the vision is essential to success.”
