Van Wersch tapped as Asia chief editor for Dow Jones Newswires

Wall Street Journal editor in chief Matt Murray sent out the following announcement:

I am pleased to announce that Jacques van Wersch will take on the newly created job of Asia Chief Editor for Dow Jones Newswires. Jacques will lead a broad revamp of our regional real-time news operation. We will count on him to work with our global Newswires leadership team to deliver top-quality coverage tailored to meet the needs of our professional audiences.

Jacques’s first task will be to set up and lead our new Singapore real-time news hub. It will be the final piece in a two-year global restructuring aimed at better serving this high-value audience. The Singapore hub will bring together real-time reporters and editors from around Asia in a purpose-built newsroom. Once up and running this summer, it will work with hubs already set up in Barcelona and New York City to ensure seamless, comprehensive, expert coverage of companies and markets around the world.

We know Jacques can make this a success, because he already has done so in Barcelona, where he helped set up our first Newswires hub from scratch and guided it for nearly two years with strategic vision, motivational management and outstanding leadership. He also knows Asia well. Jacques spent nearly seven years working for Newswires in Singapore and Hong Kong, and he speaks fluent Mandarin.

Jacques has worked in various media roles since 1997 and joined the Dow Jones Newswires team in 2008. He has well-established relationships across our global newsrooms and with the Newswires’ product, technology and sales teams. The Barcelona newsroom he set up in 2017 has become the model for our our hub strategy, which has proven a success in Europe and the Americas. Our dedicated Newswires teams have significantly ramped up the volume and urgency of our real-time coverage. This momentum has helped us add several new customers and partners over the past two years, strengthen existing relationships, and position Dow Jones Newswires for continued growth in the years ahead.

The creation of this new position, and our plans for a Singapore hub, are the first steps in a plan to bolster our Newswires presence in Asia. We are excited to have Jacques returning to Asia to lead this essential initiative in what is an extremely important region for our global professional audiences.