WSJ’s editor welcomes WSJD

Wall Street Journal managing editor Gerard Baker sent out the following message about the launch of its new technology news site, WSJD:

Today we are launching a new home for the Journal’s technology coverage. It’s called WSJD – the D is for Digital – and we hope you will take a look and quickly become a regular visitor.

As you know, we made a strategic decision last year to invest heavily in technology coverage.  WSJD represents the first fruits of that investment.  No topic is more important to our readers than tech – from gadgets to apps to enterprise software to innovation to the financing of new technology businesses to the myriad ways in which technological change is changing our lives and working experiences.

WSJD represents the Journal at its best: with significantly enhanced resources to back it up.  We have expanded our tech staff on the west coast to delve deeper into the companies, issues and products that are igniting these changes. We’ve dedicated journalists in Israel, South America and across Asia to catch trends as they move around the globe.

We’ve built up an elite team of personal-tech reviewers to expand the coverage pioneered by Walt Mossberg, who leaves us today for new pastures after a long and distinguished career.

WSJD’s mission is to break and cover the most important technology news each day. It will also showcase our enterprise and investigative journalism. It is explicitly designed to be different and easily consumed regardless of device or screen size. A great deal of the journalism will be prepared specifically for consumption on a mobile device. Social media will be a part of its mission from the get-go. In short, it will truly be the first plank in our transition to a digital-first newsroom.

All these changes represent just a start in our digital reinvention.  In February we will launch a separate online section devoted to personal tech. Over the next few months we will relaunch our major digital products – the iPad app, wsj.com and our smartphone apps.  Later this year we will host a major digital conference which will bring together executives and innovators from around the world in the best traditions of Wall Street Journal live journalism.

I am enormously grateful to all those who have labored to produce this day.  It has been made possible by the passionate, tireless leadership of our global technology editor Jonathan Krim.  Jonathan, Rebecca Blumenstein and Dennis Berman have collaborated creatively to produce this  new venture. We are also lucky to have the ingenious and steady counsel of Edward Roussel, our head of consumer products, who has been guiding things from the business side.