WSJ’s front-page business news down one-third since Murdoch’s purchase

Front-page business news stories in The Wall Street Journal have declined by one-third since News Corp. acquired the business newspaper, according to a study released Wednesday by the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism.

The study states, “That, to some degree, reflects the Journal’s move toward a more general interest publication. And some categories of news, such as coverage of government, foreign news involving the U.S. and   lifestyle subjects, have increased noticeably in recent years. Yet attention to other subject areas has fallen. Front-page coverage of health and medicine has been de-emphasized the past few years. Education issues have virtually disappeared from the front pages as has — ironically enough, given the current state of affairs—attention to the media industry.

“When Murdoch bought the Journal, he also made clear his desire to reshape the paper to more directly challenge the New York Times, even reportedly sending Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. a letter declaring: ‘Let the battle begin.’ And when it comes to the news agenda, some differences between the two publications have narrowed noticeably, as a result of what the Journal has both chosen to emphasize and de-emphasize under News Corp. But their front pages are still not the same in topic agenda.

“The clearest change in the Journal’s editorial direction in the past three and a-half years has been a reduction in front-page business coverage. In 2007, that accounted for 30% of the newshole (News Corp. officially took over the paper on December 13, 2007). That fell to 23% in 2008, to 18% in 2010 and 20% thus far in 2011. The one year when coverage spiked — to 32% in 2009 — was marked by the deep recession triggered by a near meltdown on Wall Street.

“At the same time, front-page coverage of the U.S. government has steadily increased, starting in 2009. Government accounted for 3% of the space that began on the front page under the old ownership in 2007, (and fell slightly to 2% in the 2008 election year). But it has more than doubled since, jumping to 7% in 2009 and 2010 and to 8% in 2011 to date.”

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