Expanding the WSJ brand through conferences

Richard Perez-Pena writes Monday how The Wall Street Journal is expanding its brand name recognition by rolling out a series of conferences.

Perez-Pena wrote, “Today, it will announce a conference next March on business and the environment called ‘Eco:nomics.’

“‘This particular topic is, no pun intended, very hot right now,’ said L. Gordon Crovitz, The Journal’s publisher. ‘It’s a little bit early to talk about which ones we’ll do next, but we’re very eager to try out this one and build some more.’

“The formula for the conferences goes like this: choose a compelling topic, recruit corporate sponsors and display new products, invite the stars in that field to debate and take questions from well-known journalists, and do it all on stage in front of business executives who have paid dearly to listen and rub elbows.

“This serves to make money and to spread the newspaper’s brand — in an industry with a mixed record lately of doing either of those things.”

Read more here.