Dow Jones names head of digital design

Himesh Patel has joined Dow Jones to lead the digital design of The Wall Street Journal, MarketWatch and Barron’s.

Patel was previously the creative director of London-based Telegraph Media Group, where he spearheaded the design of the Daily Telegraph newspaper and the award-winning Telegraph.co.uk website and apps.

“My goal at Dow Jones is to add zest and modernity to the consumer brands,” Patel said in a statement. “WSJ, MarketWatch and Barron’s should be consistent across platforms – web, mobile, newspaper. I want a subscriber to feel the same emotional response to our digital products that you get from an outstanding newspaper front page.

“I look forward to working closely with the editorial department on ways to make our journalism a joy to read or watch on digital platforms. We have some tough questions to answer: What is the role of a newspaper in the 21st century? What values do we need to retain and preserve from traditional newspaper cultures? And what needs to change? But we start with some critical advantages: WSJ is as essential today as it has been at any point in its 125-year history. The tsunami of second-rate content that washes across the Internet is creating an opportunity for high-quality media that stands out.”

“Readers’ experiences of our journalism on digital platforms needs to radically improve,” said Edward Roussel, head of consumer products at Dow Jones, in a statement. “This is where Himesh’s skills and leadership will be invaluable.”