WSJ aims for depth and breadth with “What’s News”

Ken Doctor writes for Politico New York about the new Wall Street Journal application called “What’s News?”

Doctor writes, “‘What’s News’ is aimed to please paying subscribers profoundly. Unlike Economist’s Espresso — within which it offers a free sample story a day — What’s News is for subscribers only.

“‘We want our subscribers to benefit from the app first. We want to reward them with a new way of accessing the Journal,’ Edward Roussel, Dow Jones’ chief innovation officer, told me this week. ‘It won’t be for everyone, but some will find it an easier way of tracking the daily business news.’

“Fair enough. We’ll see how What’s News and its siblings fare, over time.

“For Roussel, the What’s News innovation is less about a single product and more about next-stage product development.

“‘What we’ve created is designed specifically for smart phones, so this isn’t about shoehorning content from the web or anywhere else into an app. It’s designed specifically for mobile, and it’s really there to begin to experiment and be able to kind of trail blaze in the mobile space.'”

Read more here.