How the pandemic is affecting the WSJ’s events business

Kerry Flynn of CNN Business explores how media operations such as The Wall Street Journal have had their events business affected by the coronavirus pandemic.

Flynn writes, “The Wall Street Journal hosts hundreds of events every year, from intimate dinners for its C-suite communities to big conferences like WSJ Tech Live and the Future of Everything. Tickets for the Future of Everything can cost up to $1,800 for a three-day pass.

“Those tentpole events require significant planning. The Journal’s events team started coordinating this year’s Future of Everything festival, scheduled for May 11 to 13 in New York City, last April. Leigh Gilmore, the Journal’s general manager of live journalism, said by March her team knew it couldn’t go on.

“The format of the virtual series is similar to the in-person event with the Journal’s editors leading panels about technology, innovation and business. For now access is free and anyone can tune in.

“‘We have this opportunity now to reach so much more of our audience without [having] those physical space limitations,’ said Suzi Watford, chief marketing and membership officer for WSJ. ‘The thing for us is building community.'”

Read more 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.