WSJ plans global strategy

Jon Fine of BusinessWeek writes in the latest issue about The Wall Street Journal‘s strategy, which managing editor Robert Thomson says is to become a global business newspaper.

Fine writes, “But then Thomson makes his real point, noting that Dow Jones’ combined newsrooms employ more than 2,000. (The Times has about 1,200.) This fall, a revamped wsj.com will do more to direct users to stories generated by other Dow Jones properties and also prompt readers to deeper (read: paid) tiers of the site based on what they’re reading. Certain content, including some from its database unit Factiva, will be available on a ‘micropayment’ basis, ultimately allowing Amazon-esque, one-click purchases. Also coming: extensive customizing tools for readers to find, through search, much more Dow Jones content. (In Thomson’s groan-worthy formulation, ‘In the contemporary age of content, the customizer is always right.’)

“The idea that Web users would pay small fees for content has buttressed many failed business scenarios, but Thomson is unfazed: ‘Some digital ideas don’t work out because they happen at the wrong time. Video was meant to work 10 years ago. 3G was meant to work 5 years ago.’ Neither did then, but ‘they’re working now.’

“There’s been angst regarding what may happen to the Journal‘s longer- form articles—in particular, the offbeat “A-hed” front-page stories beloved by newsroom denizens. (Murdoch is believed to disdain them, but the paper has recently run A-heds on topics as catholic as ventriloquism and a bid to make ballroom dancing an Olympic sport.)”

Read more here.Â