WSJ publisher Crovitz explains changes

In a letter addressed to Wall Street Journal readers published in Monday’s paper, publisher Gordon Crovitz explained why the paper will shrink as part of a redesign.

Crovitz stated, “In an age of information overload, you tell us you want more of what the Journal uniquely offers. This includes more interpretation, analysis and context — more focus on what the rush of news truly means. You tell us the Journal already does more of this kind of journalism than any other source, at our best offering what many of you described as knowledge and even wisdom. But at a time when the bare facts of news are widely available during the day online, you count on the Journal the next morning to make sense of the news.

“As Managing Editor Paul Steiger puts it, today perhaps a bit over half of our news space is devoted to exclusive, differentiated information and the rest to essentially what happened the day before. Our goal is to move to 80% exclusive news, with 20% making sure you’re aware of the key developments of the previous day. Journal reporters and editors serve a community of interest — business executives and other leaders with similar concerns — and look forward to devoting more time and space to keeping you ahead of the news that’s essential to you. Expect to see more forward-leaning coverage, with headlines featuring predictive and explanatory words like ‘will’ and ‘means’ and ‘why.’

“We’ll launch a new feature, ‘Today’s Agenda,’ that will guide you to what the news will mean. This feature identifies news to be reported later in the day, such as economic indicators or corporate earnings, and handicaps the meaning to markets and businesses. We’ll also help you sort through information overload with a new daily feature, ‘Informed Reader,’ that identifies relevant insights from other news sources, beyond the Journal (and in the process perhaps saving you from having to go elsewhere for your information).

“In the Money & Investing section, we’ll deliver more value-added analysis of financial data. We’ll also double the number of pages devoted to leisure and arts in the Personal Journal section, giving our critics more opportunity as arbiters of taste and upholders of quality.”

Read more here.