Categories: OLD Media Moves

WSJ has relaunched its “What’s News” podcast

Anthony Galloway, global head of video and audio at The Wall Street Journal, sent out the following announcement on Wednesday to the staff:

Good morning,
As we continue development of our new daily podcast in partnership with Gimlet, I’m pleased to share that this week we re-launched the existing What’s News podcast with an updated format, refreshed sound and, most importantly, more information that’s important to our audience.
This revamped What’s News, which is being produced twice a day — the morning in London and afternoon in New York, is designed to brief our audience on what they need to know to start their day or bring them up to speed on the day’s developments. The morning episode focuses on the day’s biggest business and general news stories, recaps what you missed overnight, and features a daily markets segment. The afternoon episode, which publishes at market close, shares the day’s news with added context from Journal reporters.
Click here to listen to this morning’s episode
This updated format was developed by our new London-based What’s News host/producer, Kim Gittleson, who was previously the BBC’s Senior On-Air Reporter and North America Business Correspondent, in partnership with our New York-based team, Annmarie Fertoli, Anthony Green and Charlie Horoshowski. Brendan Francis Newnam served as a consulting producer and Paolo Bosonin, George Downs and Bekah Wineman facilitated production. Additionally, the London bureau has been immensely helpful during our piloting period and continues to support the program with daily editorial contributions.
We’re looking forward to working with reporters and editors across the newsroom as we begin this new chapter with What’s News. Stay tuned for news about the WSJ/Gimlet podcast, which is coming soon.
Anthony

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.

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View Comments

Michael says:
April 5, 2019 at 9:10 am
This change is a disaster. Kim’s voice and tone are inappropriate for a news podcast. Annmarie Fritoli was excellent. Kim sounds like a high school flake. I’m sure she’s not, but her vocal manner is all wrong. Trust me, this was a bad move. Hard to listen to now.
LA Commuter says:
April 9, 2019 at 1:45 pm
I have to agree with Michael's comment. I won't be as brash. I listen to a lot of podcasts on my commute in LA, and through all the hosts whose voice I hear, Annmarie Fertoli's exemplified the best combination of professional and eloquent. It's exactly how I expect WSJ to sound on a podcast. I don't mind some of the new changes that are trying to energize the podcast a bit more - the music, the segmented structure, etc. I think it's refreshing, modern, and keeps the listener in the loop on more than the feature story. I do think Kim Gittleson's voice and tone are not the right fit for a business/news podcast. It is more in keeping with entertainment news or something. I honestly feel like I am being babied through a podcast. And please don't end the podcast with, "...and now get back to work." *cringe*
Chad Smith says:
May 2, 2019 at 6:37 am
I was curious how people were reacting to this because my reaction is similar to the above two. The girl's voice is... "not right for this" is the nicest thing I can say. Her "this is what you missed" is condescending and assumes I've missed anything (sometimes I have, sometimes I have not). The strange music in the background makes it feel like it's trying to lull me. I don't know. It's just really weird. As someone who does marketing, I read this as WSJ attempting to appeal to a younger market, but I personally think that the entire age bracket of people who listen to WSJ want quality journalism, and don't need to have it read to them from some 22 year old with happy lilting music to feel they got the results they were looking for.