WSJ's New York section falls flat

The New York Observer provides a critique of the new New York section in The Wall Street Journal, and its evaluation is not pretty.

The editors write, “In terms of news, the section was dominated by mini-scoops, a disappointment given the paper’s resources and lead time. The first-day lead story on how the Port Authority may have let a would-be terrorist slip through the cracks felt incremental. Similarly, it’s hard to see how a hospital bid-rigging story on day two would have made it outside the inside of The Times’ Metro section.

“Other choices seem random. Does Greater New York think New Yorkers care enough about a shooting at Yale to justify putting a photo on the front page, as the Journal section does? They don’t. On the same day, a compelling one-on-one interview with Governor David Paterson was buried inside, right above a story about how box office for Broadway’s American Idiot is improving.

“The lighter coverage, of the arts and society, is where the section feels weakest. (No surprise, given that it’s not The WSJ’s strong suit. And yet the new section boasts an unusually large number of expats from The New York Sun, which had a notably robust culture section.)”

Read more here.