New WSJ ME: Industry suffers from morose attitude

In an interview with Editor & Publisher’s Joe Strupp, new Wall Street Journal managing editor Marcus Brauchli said that the industry suffered from too much “moroseness.”

Strupp wrote, “Declining to offer specifics about any changes he plans in the top post, Brauchli said the Journal would continue to focus on a mix of foreign and business news, along with utilizing both the print paper and other non-print.

“‘Clearly, there is less and less distinction between foreign and business. There is no one in business who isn’t concerned with shaping the world economy,’ Brauchli said when asked if the paper would continue to staff its foreign bureaus as heavily as before while other news outlets are cutting back. ‘We are absolutely committed to having strong global business coverage.’

“A veteran overseas journalist who has served in Tokyo, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Beijing, Brauchli stressed the need to combine the foreign and business approaches. ‘It is impossible to imagine having a strong business news product without a strong business news dimension,’ he said. ‘The overseas dimension to business is enormous, but that isn’t all we are going to be doing.’

“Brauchli, who was heavily involved in the Journal’s recent redesign, pointed to the need to continue expanding the paper’s non-print areas, such as the Web, mobile alerts and increasing areas of information. He said the print daily ‘has always had a strong position’ and it ‘is still very much the flagship.'”

Read more here.