High-end business journalism still in great demand

Robert Thomson, the managing editor of The Wall Street Journal and editor in chief of Dow Jones & Co., spoke Wednesday at the Future of Business Media conference during an interview with PaidContent.org co-editor Staci Kramer.

Here is an excerpt:

— On demand for premium news: Thomson: “Value is all relative.â€? With regional and local papers focusing their business coverage on personal finance, he asked: “where do people go for high-end international finance news?… We’ve been addressing that issue head on. We’ve seen 2 to 3 percent growth in print subscriptions, and frankly what we are trying to sell is high-end business news. There’s a lot of demand.â€? On the perception that the WSJ is moving away from business news to attract a bigger audience, he said: “They don’t read the paper.â€?

— On investing in journalism and globalization: “The problem with the Journal was that as a company, it was under invested in. If you asked which financial company would be best positioned to take advantage of globalization, you’d have to say Dow Jones. Clearly we wanted to create a framework where we could expand globally and digitally.â€? In China, he said they are growing 400 percent a year, and they are hiring 60 news wire journalists in India. “I think there’s a reason why we are being successful at this time.â€?

Read more here.