What makes the WSJ so unique

Noted newspaper designer Mario Garcia writes about his involvement with designs and redesigns at The Wall Street Journal and, in his opinion, what makes the business newspaper so special.

Garcia writes, “I learned that the use of the precise word in a headline made a difference for how the story would be perceived.  And that repeating words in headlines, summaries and lead paragraphs reduced the number of possibilities to add information and to keep the reader engaged.

“Storytelling techniques—I would venture to say that The Wall Street Journal had an almost clear monopoly on the business of story forms, or genres, from page to page.  Editors and reporters assigned names to such stories, an A-head (that would be a sort of invisible, quirky story that always appears on Page One, with a ‘hood’ over the headline). The subjects have nothing to do with the news of the day, and could be as ‘irrelevant’ as the trend to install urinals in the bathrooms of  American homes, or about the charm of wicker chairs.

“Navigation–If there is a newspaper that was visionary in the area of navigation, it is The Wall Street Journal, where, as I understand it, an editor 8 decades ago decided that WSJ readers were busy people and that there should be a full summary of the news on Page One.  To me, that was the first navigation scrolling device ever created. It still works today. Why it has been relegated to Page 2 in some print editions, I can’t understand, except that the editors may be right in thinking that digitally connected WSJ readers are not counting on that navigational device as much today in their printed newspaper.

“Attention to detail—if you have a chance to take a look at the Styleguide of The Wall Street Journal, do so. It is a journalism textbook, crafted to perfection.  AT the WSJ I knew, no detail would be left out of the overall planning. Headlines, summaries, text, photo captions, photos, graphics, illustrations and the name of everything was given the utmost attention.”

Read more here.