Politics-heavy WSJ headed for trouble after November elections

Michael Learmonth of Silicon Alley Insider writes that former Wall Street Journal managing editor Norman Pearlstine believes the paper’s new format that puts more regular news on the front page could be in trouble after the November elections.

Learmonth writes, “Pearlstine, speaking to the Argyle Executive Forum in New York, said the new WSJ’s focus on the horse race makes sense, because there’s a horse race. But ‘it will be interesting to see if that can be sustained after the election… an awful lot of Journal subscribers made the decision to buy it because they didn’t want general news–they wanted specialized coverage they couldn’t get elsewhere.’

“Pearlstine’s critique isn’t a new one: It’s more or less the conventional wisdom about Rupe’s plan at this point. We have a hunch that Marcus Brauchi may have had the same argument. And now he’s also a former WSJ managing editor.

“Token caveat from Pearlstine: ‘For any of us to sit in this room to bet against Rupert and his vision is brave, but he has made mistakes along the way–TV Guide comes to mind–so he’s not infallible.'”

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