WSJ’s Tucker brought fresh eyes to the publication

Emma Tucker

Peter Kafka interviewed Wall Street Journal editor Emma Tucker on his podcast about the changes she has made at the publication since joining in early 2023.

Subscriptions are up 7% in the past year.

“I felt that the Journal was in a very good place but could be more ambitious with its appeal to new digital audiences,” said Tucker. “In a world of very fractured news and noise and confusion and misinformation, a brand like the Journal…could be doing even more to get its fundamentally excellent journalism to a wider audience.”

Tucker aimed to lower the age of its readers and bring in more female and international subscribers who love news and get value from quality journalism.

Tucker said that the paper has been thinking hard every day about what its audience wants and impacts them directly. “Everything flows from that,” she said.

“There’s a tendency of established news organizations to think they have to cover everything,” added Tucker. “…We’re always thinking what does the audience want from us.”

To listen, go here.

Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.