WSJ's secret project will focus on foreign coverage

TALKING BIZ NEWS EXCLUSIVE

In mid September, Wall Street Journal managing editor Robert Thomson made an internal announcement, appointing two journalists to oversee a secret project that he said would be “crucial to our success as a company.”

Since then, speculation has run rampant about the project, as guesses have speculated that it might anything from a new edition of the Journal that is strictly business to a multi-platform product.

They’re all wrong.

Talking Biz News has done some snooping, and here is what we can tell you:

1. The special project will be a new platform. Do not expect a traditional newspaper or media format.

2. Gabriella Stern, the senior editor for global news coverage at Dow Jones Newswires, is key to the project. She has spent most of the past 10 years overseas.

3. The content will focus on overseas business news, perhaps from foreign exchanges.

4. Some Journal and Dow Jones staffers are joining the project as a way to go/return overseas.

5. One Dow Jones staffer says his boss has been “completely consumed” by the project.

The conclusion to make from all of this is that Dow Jones & Co. is looking to roll out a new online/smart phone/smart pad news product that will focus on foreign business news, perhaps solely on the $3.2 trillion foreign exchange market.