New WSJ website is more staid and less spirited than Bloomberg.com

Ken Doctor writes for Nieman Journalism Lab about the revamped Wall Street Journal website, calling it “far more staid and less spirited than the recently relaunched Bloomberg.com.”

Doctor writes, “The new Journal, under Dow Jones CEO Will Lewis, editor Gerry Baker, and Roussel, are plainly playing catchup. Given News Corp’s deep pockets, that catchup doesn’t place them in any financial peril, but it does highlight, once again, how much the two-year tenure of deposed Dow Jones CEO Lex Fenwick cost. With its global brand, the Journal shot out of the gate in the early iPhone and iPad era, distinguishing itself with innovative products, some of which worked, and some of which didn’t. (Parent News Corp’s The Daily ran high with its tablet-embracing iPad product, a source of good, early innovation ideas, most of which died on the vine.) Many of those responsible for leading the creation of those products have moved on to other companies, including new Fortune editor Alan Murray, who is now reshaping that magazine to be compete more directly with his longtime employer, on tech (including the recent hiring of half-dozen former Gigaom staffers) and in other business sectors.

“Any major change in digital products requires a major rethinking. We can pick apart the look, feel, and function of the new WSJ product — it’s lighter and more visual, of course — and I’ll provide a quick take on that below. But most important here is the business and product strategy. What do the new products tell us about the way the Journal — still the largest paid-circulation daily in the U.S. — sees the world, its readers, and its advertisers at this point? We can distill that thinking into seven distinct points.”

Read more here. Dow Jones & Co.’s websites rank No. 4 among financial news media sites, with 30.7 million unique visitors in March. It’s behind Yahoo Finance, Business Insider and Forbes in terms of unique visitors.