Here is the memo sent to Dow Jones & Co. employees this morning from executive vice president Clare Hart and Todd Larsen, chief operating officer of the consumer media group, about the new “professional edition” of The Wall Street Journal.
“Today Dow Jones has achieved another milestone in the drive to provide the best global business news and information with the most innovative delivery to subscribers around the world. The launch of The Wall Street Journal Professional Edition brings together two iconic Dow Jones brands — The Wall Street Journal Online and Dow Jones Factiva — that individually lead their market segments, but when combined offer even greater potential to capture new audiences and drive retention of existing clients. The Wall Street Journal Professional Edition points to a new equation for success, where the total opportunity is greater than the sum of the individual parts. The launch enables us to expand our digital offerings and open up new revenue streams.
“It’s taken a talented team of professionals from across the company to envision and build this new product. When many companies are retrenching and waiting out the recession, Dow Jones has chosen to invest in new products and chart a new direction.
“The team was led by Daniel Bernard, chief product officer, The Wall Street Journal Digital Network, Brigitte Ricou-Bellan, vice president and managing director, Researcher & Knowledge Worker Solutions, Alan Murray, deputy managing editor and executive editor, online for The Wall Street Journal and Premal Parikh, director, application development for the Wall Street Journal Digital Network. Among many other contributors, it included Darren McDermott, David Chivers, Ryan Warren, Ted Dickinson, Laura Holder, Brandon Whightsel, Sharon Denning, Raj Bahl, Doug Reiter, Fred Nix, Chris Boyd, Lee Cookson, Sarah Barnaby, Jim Skelly, John Costanzo, Norm Gorcys, Chris Nelligan, Pete Kostakis, Gene Hsiao, Klas Uden, Philip Fertick, Julia Mair and Millicent Holcomb.
“Designed specifically for business professionals, The Wall Street Journal Professional Edition allows subscribers to stay on top of the day’s news while also monitoring focused in-depth news and information about industries, companies, and people affecting their business. It builds on The Wall Street Journal Online’s intuitive design, enriching it with unique content and functionality, including:Â
- Aggregated news and information from more than 17,000 leading global sources that deliver a comprehensive view of the business world
- Factiva SmartSearchTM that provides powerful search capabilities on a one year archive of Factiva’s global business sources and a two year archive of wsj.com contentÂ
- Six key industry sections that are continuously managed by The Wall Street Journal editors who select news and information from across Factiva’s vast archive: Pharmaceuticals, Healthcare, Energy, Media & Marketing, Telecommunications and Technology
- More than 30 industry specific pages, managed by a team of Dow Jones editors to deliver the most current insight and identify emerging trends
- Custom News that allows users to personalize their own home page to quickly surface the news they want on issues, companies, industries, or editor-chosen “deep dives”
- A permanent docking bar where subscribers can easily access their personalized industry pages, alerts, saved searches, personalization options, shared content and more”
The product will be rolled out to U.S. consumers on Nov. 2. Until then, the company is asking Dow Jones employees to check out the product and provide feedback.
