WSJ editor Tucker’s note on America coverage changes

Wall Street Journal editor in chief Emma Tucker sent out the following on Thursday:

Dear All,

Today we announced changes to how we cover news in the U.S. and how we write about the big subjects that grip America.

As you know, ambitious and revelatory work is at the center of our reader-first strategy. To execute that strategy, we must concentrate our efforts on areas where we can best do distinctive work.

To that end, we are moving many of our U.S. News reporters to groups in which they are natural fits: Real estate moves to Finance & Economics; reporters covering state and local politics join the Politics team; Education moves to Life & Work. And some reporters will move to a new National Affairs team that will take on big topics — abortion, immigration, land use, guns, race. National Affairs will be part of Enterprise under Bruce Orwall and, I am excited to announce, will be led by Jennifer Levitz. We envision National Affairs as a home for engaging writing and storytelling.

These changes mean that U.S. News will no longer be a standalone coverage area and that we are closing the East Coast, Mid-U.S. and West Coast regional bureaus. But it does not mean that we are pulling back from the United States. Far from it: Our economics team is expanding into new regions; the National Affairs reporters will be based all around the country, looking to tell stories of national consequence wherever they arise.

I want to thank Miguel and Ashby for their leadership of U.S. News. Both will be taking on new challenges: Miguel as Deputy Standards Editor and Ashby as Deputy Economics Editor.

Our readers depend timely reporting, and so we are converting Speed & Trending into a new breaking-news desk. It will be tightly integrated with Platforms & Publishing under David Crow to ensure we are always fast and responsive.

We are moving away from regional and local general news, and because of that we are eliminating some roles in U.S. News and Speed & Trending. I’d like to thank those employees for their significant contributions to the Journal. I know that it is difficult to say goodbye to colleagues and friends with whom you’ve worked for many years.

We have made a lot of changes in recent months, and I can say that we are very much delivering for our readers. Subscriptions are up, engagement is up, the website and the app and the paper are brilliant and surprising and interesting every single day. This is down to your hard work, your determination and your dedication to the highest-quality journalism possible.