WSJ takes on the NYC market

Diego Vasquez of MediaLife interviewed Steve Greenberger, chief executive officer at SR Greenberger & Associates, and Ed Strapagiel, executive vice president at Kubas Consultants, about the new New York edition of the Wall Street Journal.

Here is an excerpt:

What is the Wall Street Journal’s goal with the launch of this new New York edition?

Greenberger: It’s interesting that everyone would identify The New York Times as the principal target of the New York edition, but knowing Murdoch he’s going to have a broader scope of coverage of the market. My anticipation is he’ll cover arts and culture to a larger degree than one might have thought, not just the city beat with local and regional news.

I think the average advertiser thinks he’s taking on the Times, but I think he’s taking on the market. And this is not Rupert’s first foray into print in New York. One only needs to go back a number of years when he owned New York magazine.

So he personally has experience with understanding the New York marketplace from the intelligentsia through what’s hot and what’s not, which then sort of makes Rupert’s New York edition a competitor to all New York print media, the Daily News and the Post, and the Times, New York magazine, Time Out New York, etc., especially if he includes the variety of hot topics inclusive of events and meetings and fun things that go on in the market as well.

Also, Murdoch’s familiarity with the entertainment marketplace gives him foray into really a smarter coverage of the New York market.