WSJ revamping digital strategy, causing tension with reporters

The Wall Street Journal has revamped its digital strategy, which has caused tension with some reporters, reports Steven Perlberg of Business Insider.

Perlberg writes, “The Journal has placed a number of service-minded, search-engine-optimized stories in front of its paywall over the past few months, including a state-by-state COVID-19 vaccination guide and a piece outlining what to know before investing in Bitcoin. It’s the kind of digital fare that is commonplace across the internet but relatively new for the 131-year-old newspaper.

“But the push has received mixed reviews internally, Journal editor-in-chief Matt Murray acknowledged. Reporters on corporate beats, for instance, have been told they will be asked to work on more breaking-news stories about the companies they cover, increasing the frequency that they are expected to publish, one person said.

“Some have welcomed the effort to be more competitive on generating traffic. Murray has responded to the pushback by saying that the Journal doesn’t have to sacrifice quality to improve its digital chops.

“‘There’s a little tension there, but that’s OK. That comes with change and growth,’ Murray told Insider. ‘We can’t afford to have our head in the sand and do what we want to do as if it was the year 1990 and we were the leading business news print publication and there was no competition.'”

Read more here.