WSJ's digital ops will eventually be larger than print

TALKING BIZ NEWS EXCLUSIVE

Editor’s note: This is the third in a series of interviews with major players in business journalism to celebrate the fifth anniversary of Talking Biz News.

As executive editor of WSJ.com, Alan Murray oversees the digital operations of The Wall Street Journal, which has more than 1 million subscribers to its site in addition to those who subscribe to its print paper.

Murray, who is also deputy managing editor for the paper, has editorial responsibility for the Journal’s web sites, including WSJ.com and MarketWatch and the Journal’s books, conferences and television operations.

Prior to his current position, Murray was assistant managing editor of The Journal, and author of the paper’s “Business” column, which runs every Wednesday.

Previously, he served as CNBC’s Washington, D.C., bureau chief and was co-host of “Capital Report with Alan Murray and Gloria Borger.” While working at CNBC, he also wrote the Journal’s weekly “Political Capital” column. Prior to that, he spent a decade as the Washington bureau chief for The Journal.

Murray joined The Journal in 1983, as a reporter covering economic policy. He was named Washington deputy bureau chief in January 1992 and became bureau chief in September 1993. During his tenure as bureau chief, the Washington bureau won three Pulitzer Prizes, as well as many other awards.

During his time overseeing the digital operations, the WSJ.com has launched a number of new sites, such as a Chinese-language site, and applications for the iPad and iPhone. In addition, the WSJ.com now has live video shows on its site — which was redesigned and relaunched in 2008 — throughout the day.

Murray discussed the paper’s digital strategy with Talking Biz News by e-mail earlier this week. What follows is an edited transcript.

How does the WSJ.com fit into the overall strategy for the paper?

We continue to innovate and invest in print and have seen positive response from readers as a result. Everyone recognizes that digital is the future, so we continue to innovate all around. And note I’m calling it “digital” — which includes iPad edition, Blackberry reader, and other “apps” as well as WSJ.com.

There’s a lot of content on the site that doesn’t appear in the print paper. How is that decided?

The paper is free to use whatever it chooses, but there is limited space. The choices are made by the paper editors.

WSJ.com recently began some live video programming. How is that going?

Fabulously. We have several live shows throughout the day covering a range of topics – news, digital and technology, opinion, markets, etc. – and they help showcase our reporters and reporting. We’ve added significantly to the video efforts over the past couple of years, and it has helped us get our total video views to nearly 10 million in June. We plan to add more.

How much content produced specifically for WSJ.com gets shared with MarketWatch.com, and how is that decided?

MarketWatch is free to use whatever content the editors want, unless it is behind the pay wall. Our sites use a mix of “hosting” and “linking” to maximize cross traffic.

How much content is behind the paywall at WSJ.com vs. available to anyone and how is that determined?

Roughly speaking, two thirds is behind the pay wall. Editors decide, in order to both increase value to subscribers and maximize traffic. That may sound like conflicting guidance, but one thing we’ve found is that our “most valuable” content and our “most popular” content are frequently not the same thing. Thus we can give our “most valuable” content exclusively to subscribers, while using our “most popular” content to drive traffic.

How many online subscribers still get the print paper as well? Is that increasing or decreasing?

We don’t break that number out, but I can tell you it’s growing.

What are some of the ways that you’re looking at to increase the site’s revenue?

The introduction of WSJ Professional earlier this year is the best example. We will be growing it.

Is there still some interest internally with charging more for premium content?

Yes.

How do you think the Internet has affected or changed business journalism?

Complicated question. Would take a book to answer!

Do you think there will be a day when WSJ.com has more subscribers than the print paper?

There will certainly be a day when “digital” has more paying subscribers than print.

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.

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View Comments

James Breiner says:
September 5, 2010 at 4:37 pm
Murray´s idea of balancing the need to drive traffic with that of creating value for the subscriber seems exactly right. The only way to do that is to be vigilant as to the trends in use of content, new subscriptions and renewals on one´s site.
It will be a balancing act for each site, and the sweet spot will be unique for each site. But a site needs exclusive content to have a prayer of getting paid subscribers.
Thanks for this article. -- James Breiner, director, Center for Digital Journalism, Guadalajara, Mexico