The WSJ’s venture into television

Brian Stelter of the New York Times writes about what the Wall Street Journal‘s live video venture means.

Stelter writes, “Lacking big hair and big personalities, the video operation is consciously unlike television, but it does have slick graphics, branded segments and — as of late — TV-like pauses for commercial breaks. Over the summer The Journal extended several of its 10-to-12-minute newscasts to half-hours. Mr. Murray said it was a ‘money-making enterprise.’

“For the most part the programs rely on The Journal’s existing staff. Readers and users ‘like seeing our reporters live. They like being able to go to places and see the things that our reporters can see. And technology allows us to do it now,’ Mr. Murray said.

“The Journal has expanded its video content in spite of its contract with CNBC, the leading business news network on television, and in spite of the fact that The Journal’s parent has its own business network, Fox Business. The CNBC contract expires in about 15 months, but already Journal reporters tend to appear more often on Fox than on CNBC.

“If WSJ Live becomes available on more Internet-connected televisions and becomes recognized as its own sort of network, reporter appearances on the networks may become less meaningful.”

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.