Categories: OLD Media Moves

WSJ looking to add more color

The Wall Street Journal is about to get a new look, one that will bring more color to the traditionally staid business paper, and that could help it attract advertisers, writes Lucia Moses of Adweek.

Moses writes, “The current changes, being made by Tomaso Capuano, creative director at the Journal, are more cosmetic in nature. Capuano was responsible for launching the WSJ’s Greater New York section and relaunching its Saturday edition as the WSJ Weekend section. He came to the Journal in 2008 when he worked on the début of WSJ., the Journal’s glossy magazine.

“Capuano has given a presentation on the changes to the newspaper’s staff. A source with knowledge of the changes said that in addition to changes to elements such as symbols and callouts, there will be more color inside the paper. Section headers will be assigned colors, in the same way the Friday Journal section is blue. (Money & Investing will be green, for instance.)

“The addition of color has been a consistent theme over the years at the Journal. The paper charges a premium for color ads, making them more lucrative than black-and-white. It’s also gradually added more lifestyle news to strengthen its appeal to women and younger readers.”

Read more here.

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.