WSJ glossy mag prototypes being distributed

Irin Carmon of Women’s Wear Daily writes Friday that The Wall Street Journal is about to unveil its magazine prototype, to be called WSJ., to potential advertisers.

Carmon wrote, “WSJ. is hunting for a publisher, which Rooney said would be likely drawn from the magazine world and named within the next month. Jamie Friedman Altschul, who had been named the associate publisher of the magazine, returned to Condé Nast Publications about a month ago to work with her old boss at Vanity Fair, Lou Cona, in corporate sales. Sources said those in talks with the Journal included executives ousted from Condé Nast in January. (Condé Nast is also WWD’s corporate parent.)

“Unlike T, with which it will plainly compete, WSJ.’s circulation of 800,000 will be targeted to the 15 largest metro markets, including subscribers with a median household income of $300,000 (15 percent higher than the Journal’s overall), plus a small amount of newsstand distribution. (For would-be readers shut out, all the material will be online.) Another 180,000 copies will be distributed in the Asian and European editions of the paper. As with Time magazine’s Style & Design spin-off, the strategy hones the demographic profile while keeping production costs down.

“The Journal said it has 25 committed advertisers, just over half of which are already advertising in the paper, but said they wished to remain unnamed for now.”

Read more here.