So Rupert Murdoch wants the Journal to be a first read, to compete with The New York Times on general news. It’s a terrible move, as we’ve written here many times. Today provides an illustration of why.
The WSJ fronts a generic (though well-written) news story that could have been come off the wire. Commodity news, in other words, that you can get anywhere.
The New York Times and Washington Post also have their straight news stories on page one. But each has an accompanying piece that spins the story forward and tells us what it means and what it may come to mean.
The headlines tell the tale. Here’s all you get from the Journal:
“Snipers Kill Pirates, Save Captain”
But here’s the Times:
“Captain’s Rescue Revives Debate Over Arming Crews”
And the Washington Post:
“An Early Military Victory for Obama”
The irony is the Journal invented the form, and it’s what papers need to move toward to survive in the 21st century.
But Robert Thomson and Murdoch are moving the paper backward. Its pirate story barely even has a nutgraf. This is not progress, and it’s bad business.
Personally, I like the Journal much better now.
I always thought it had too much business news, even though I'm a huge consumer of business news.
And with all due respect for tradition, the 19th Century, completely gray front page, its time had come -- and past.
From this reader, congrats to Rupert Murdoch and Robert Thompson for a better paper.
I'll be reading it at least as often as I read the NYT or WaPo.
#1 Posted by Rudy, CJR on Wed 15 Apr 2009 at 09:35 AM