''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published six days a week by Dow Jones & Company, a division of News Corp. The newspaper is published in the broadsheet format and online. The ''Journal'' has been printed continuously since its inception on July 8, 1889, by
Charles Dow
Charles Henry Dow (; November 6, 1851 – December 4, 1902) was an American journalist who co-founded Dow Jones & Company with Edward Jones and Charles Bergstresser.
Dow also co-founded ''The Wall Street Journal'', which has become one of th ...
Charles Bergstresser Charles Milford Bergstresser (June 25, 1858 – September 20, 1923) was an American journalist and, with Charles Dow and Edward Jones, one of the founders of Dow Jones & Company at 15 Wall Street in 1882.
Early life
A native of Berrysburg, Pennsyl ...
. The ''Journal'' is regarded as a newspaper of record, particularly in terms of business and financial news. The newspaper has won 38 Pulitzer Prizes, the most recent in 2019.
''The Wall Street Journal'' is one of the largest newspapers in the United States by circulation, with a circulation of about 2.834million copies (including nearly 1,829,000 digital sales) compared with ''
USA Today
''USA Today'' (stylized in all uppercase) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth on September 15, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headquarters in Tysons, Virgi ...
''s 1.7million. The ''Journal'' publishes the luxury news and
lifestyle magazine
Lifestyle journalism is the field of journalism that provides news and opinion, often in an entertaining tone, regarding goods and services used by consumers in their everyday life. Lifestyle journalism covers travel, fashion, fitness, leisure, fo ...
''
WSJ
''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...
'', which was originally launched as a quarterly but expanded to 12 issues in 2014. An online version was launched in 1995, which has been accessible only to subscribers since it began. The editorial pages of the ''Journal'' are typically
conservative
Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...
in their positions.
History
Beginnings
The first products of Dow Jones & Company, the publisher of the ''Journal'', were brief news bulletins, nicknamed "
flimsies
Flimsies are a type of bingo cards printed on thin sheets of paper. They are typically printed with three cards on a single sheet, but also come in other formats:
* One card per sheet
* Two cards per sheet
* Four cards per sheet
* Six cards per sh ...
", hand-delivered throughout the day to traders at the stock exchange in the early 1880s. They were later aggregated in a printed daily summary called the ''Customers' Afternoon Letter''. Reporters
Charles Dow
Charles Henry Dow (; November 6, 1851 – December 4, 1902) was an American journalist who co-founded Dow Jones & Company with Edward Jones and Charles Bergstresser.
Dow also co-founded ''The Wall Street Journal'', which has become one of th ...
, Edward Jones, and
Charles Bergstresser Charles Milford Bergstresser (June 25, 1858 – September 20, 1923) was an American journalist and, with Charles Dow and Edward Jones, one of the founders of Dow Jones & Company at 15 Wall Street in 1882.
Early life
A native of Berrysburg, Pennsyl ...
converted this into ''The Wall Street Journal'', which was published for the first time on July 8, 1889, and began delivery of the Dow Jones & Company News Service via telegraph.
In 1896, The "
Dow Jones Industrial Average
The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA), Dow Jones, or simply the Dow (), is a stock market index of 30 prominent companies listed on stock exchanges in the United States.
The DJIA is one of the oldest and most commonly followed equity inde ...
" was officially launched. It was the first of several indices of stock and bond prices on the
New York Stock Exchange
The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE, nicknamed "The Big Board") is an American stock exchange in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It is by far the world's largest stock exchange by market capitalization of its listed ...
. In 1899, the ''Journal'' Review & Outlook column, which still runs today, appeared for the first time, initially written by Charles Dow.
Journalist
Clarence Barron
Clarence W. Barron (July 2, 1855, in Boston, Massachusetts – October 2, 1928) was one of the most influential figures in the history of Dow Jones & Company. As a career newsman described as a "short, rotund powerhouse", he died holding the po ...
purchased control of the company for US$130,000 in 1902 (); circulation was then around 7,000 but climbed to 50,000 by the end of the 1920s. Barron and his predecessors were credited with creating an atmosphere of fearless, independent financial reporting—a novelty in the early days of
business journalism
Business journalism is the part of journalism that tracks, records, analyzes and interprets the business, economic and financial activities and changes that take place in societies. Topics widely cover the entire purview of all commercial activ ...
. In 1921,
Barron's Barron's or Barrons may refer to:
*Barron's Educational Series, a publisher of books, as well as college entrance exam preparation classes and materials, now an imprint of Kaplan Test Prep
** B.E.S. Publishing, the former owner of Barron's
* ''Barr ...
, the United States's premier financial weekly, was founded.Crossen, Cynthia. It All Began in the Basement of a Candy Store ", ''The Wall Street Journal'' (New York), p. B1, August 1, 2007. Barron died in 1928, a year before
Black Tuesday
The Wall Street Crash of 1929, also known as the Great Crash, was a major American stock market crash that occurred in the autumn of 1929. It started in September and ended late in October, when share prices on the New York Stock Exchange coll ...
Bancroft family
The Bancroft family are the former owners of Dow Jones & Company which is now owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation (NewsCorp).
The Family
The Bancrofts are a family of publicly reclusive Boston socialites who inherited ''The Wall Stree ...
, would continue to control the company until 2007.
''The Journal'' took its modern shape and prominence in the 1940s, a time of industrial expansion for the United States and its financial institutions in New York.
Bernard Kilgore
Bernard (Barney) Kilgore was a managing editor of ''The Wall Street Journal'' from 1941 to 1965 and head of the Dow Jones company.
In 1961 Kilgore received the Elijah Parish Lovejoy Award as well as an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Colby Col ...
was named managing editor of the paper in 1941, and company CEO in 1945, eventually compiling a 25-year career as the head of the ''Journal''. Kilgore was the architect of the paper's iconic front-page design, with its "What's News" digest, and its national distribution strategy, which brought the paper's circulation from 33,000 in 1941 to 1.1million when Kilgore died in 1967. Under Kilgore, in 1947, the paper won its first Pulitzer Prize for William Henry Grimes's
editorials
An editorial, or leading article (UK) or leader (UK) is an article written by the senior editorial people or publisher of a newspaper, magazine, or any other written document, often unsigned. Australian and major United States newspapers, such ...
.
In 1967, Dow Jones Newswires began a major expansion outside of the United States ultimately placing its journalists in every major financial center in
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...
,
Asia
Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an are ...
,
Latin America
Latin America or
* french: Amérique Latine, link=no
* ht, Amerik Latin, link=no
* pt, América Latina, link=no, name=a, sometimes referred to as LatAm is a large cultural region in the Americas where Romance languages — languages derived f ...
Africa
Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...
. In 1970, Dow Jones bought the Ottaway newspaper chain, which at the time comprised nine dailies and three Sunday newspapers. Later, the name was changed to
Dow Jones Local Media Group
Local Media Group, Inc., formerly Dow Jones Local Media Group and Ottaway Newspapers Inc., owned newspapers, Web sites and niche publications in California, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Oregon and Pennsylvania. It was headquarte ...
.
The period from 1971 to 1997 brought about a series of launches, acquisitions, and joint ventures, including "
Factiva
Factiva is a business information and research tool owned by Dow Jones & Company. Factiva aggregates content from both licensed and free sources. Providing organizations with search, alerting, dissemination, and other information management ca ...
", ''
The Wall Street Journal Asia
''The Wall Street Journal Asia'', a version of ''The Wall Street Journal'', was a newspaper that provided news and analysis of global business developments for an Asian audience. Formerly known as ''The Asian Wall Street Journal'', it was founde ...
'', ''
The Wall Street Journal Europe
''The Wall Street Journal Europe'' was a daily English-language newspaper that covered global and regional business news for Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA). Published by Dow Jones & Company (a News Corp company), it formed part of th ...
'', the WSJ.com website, Dow Jones Indexes, MarketWatch, and "WSJ Weekend Edition". In 2007, News Corp. acquired Dow Jones. '' WSJ.'', a luxury lifestyle magazine, was launched in 2008.
Internet expansion
A complement to the print newspaper, ''The Wall Street Journal Online'', was launched in 1996 and has allowed access only by subscription from the beginning. In 2003, Dow Jones began to integrate reporting of ''the Journal'' print and online subscribers together in
Audit Bureau of Circulations An Audit Bureau of Circulations is a private organization that provides industry-agreed standards for media brand measurement of print publications and other media outlets in a given country. The International Federation of Audit Bureaux of Circula ...
statements. In 2007, it was commonly believed to be the largest paid-subscription news site on the Web, with 980,000 paid subscribers. Since then, digital subscription has risen to 1.3 million as of September 2018, falling to number two behind ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'' with 3 million digital subscriptions. In May 2008, an annual subscription to the online edition of ''The Wall Street Journal'' cost $119 for those who do not have subscriptions to the print edition. By June 2013, the monthly cost for a subscription to the online edition was $22.99, or $275.88 annually, excluding introductory offers. Digital subscription rates increased dramatically as its popularity increased over print to $443.88 per year, with first time subscribers paying $187.20 per year.
On November 30, 2004,
Oasys Mobile
Oasys Mobile is a mobile game developer and publisher. Oasys develops top-ranked franchise games and applications based on brands such as Mattel, Sid Meier's ''Civilization IV'', ''Railroad Tycoon'', '' Pirates!'', Phil Hellmuth, AROD and Hoote ...
and ''The Wall Street Journal'' released an app that would allow users to access content from ''The Wall Street Journal Online'' via their mobile phones. Pulitzer Prize–winning stories from 1995 are available free on the Pulitzer web site.
In September 2005, the ''Journal'' launched a weekend edition, delivered to all subscribers, which marked a return to Saturday publication after a lapse of some 50 years. The move was designed in part to attract more consumer advertising.
In 2005, the ''Journal'' reported a readership profile of about 60 percent top management, an average income of $191,000, an average household net worth of $2.1million, and an average age of 55.
In 2007, the ''Journal'' launched a worldwide expansion of its website to include major foreign-language editions. The paper had also shown an interest in buying the rival ''
Financial Times
The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Ni ...
''.
Design changes
The nameplate is unique in having a period at the end.
Front-page advertising in the ''Journal'' was re-introduced on September 5, 2006. This followed similar introductions in the European and Asian editions in late 2005.
After presenting nearly identical front-page layouts for half a century—always six columns, with the day's top stories in the first and sixth columns, "What's News" digest in the second and third, the "A-hed" feature story in the fourth (with 'hed' being jargon for
headline
The headline or heading is the text indicating the content or nature of the article below it, typically by providing a form of brief summary of its contents.
The large type ''front page headline'' did not come into use until the late 19th centur ...
) and themed weekly reports in the fifth column – the paper in 2007 decreased its broadsheet width from 15 to 12inches while keeping the length at 22inches, to save newsprint costs. News design consultant Mario Garcia collaborated on the changes. Dow Jones said it would save US$18million a year in newsprint costs across all ''The Wall Street Journal'' papers. This move eliminated one column of print, pushing the "A-hed" out of its traditional location (though the paper now usually includes a quirky feature story on the right side of the front page, sandwiched among the lead stories).
The paper uses ink dot drawings called
hedcut
Hedcut is a term referring to a style of drawing, associated with ''The Wall Street Journal'' half-column portrait illustrations. They use the stipple method of many small dots and the hatching method of small lines to create an image, and are ...
s, introduced in 1979 and originally created by
Kevin Sprouls
Kevin Sprouls is the creator of the ''Wall Street Journal portrait'' style known as ''hedcut.''
He began as a freelance illustrator for Dow Jones and Company, the parent company for ''The Wall Street Journal.'' In 1979 he introduced a style of s ...
, in addition to photographs, a method of illustration considered a consistent visual signature of the paper. the ''Journal'' still heavily employs the use of
caricatures
A caricature is a rendered image showing the features of its subject in a simplified or exaggerated way through sketching, pencil strokes, or other artistic drawings (compare to: cartoon). Caricatures can be either insulting or complimentary, a ...
, including those by illustrator
Ken Fallin
Ken Fallin (born November 11, 1948 in Jacksonville, Florida) is an American illustrator and caricaturist."You're Nobody Until You've Been Fallined", Leaders' magazine, July–September 2003, Volume 26, Number 3, p.118. His first big break was ...
, such as when
Peggy Noonan
Margaret Ellen Noonan (born 1950), known as Peggy Noonan, is a weekly columnist for ''The Wall Street Journal'', and contributor to NBC News and ABC News. She was a primary speechwriter and Special Assistant to President Ronald Reagan from 1984 t ...
memorialized then-recently deceased newsman
Tim Russert
Timothy John Russert (May 7, 1950 – June 13, 2008) was an American television journalist and lawyer who appeared for more than 16 years as the longest-serving moderator of NBC's ''Meet the Press''. He was a senior vice president at NBC News, Wa ...
. The use of color photographs and graphics has become increasingly common in recent years with the addition of more "lifestyle" sections.
The daily was awarded by the
Society for News Design
The Society for News Design (SND), formerly known as the Society of Newspaper Design, is an international organization for professionals working in the news sector of the media industry, specifically those involved with graphic design, illustration ...
World's Best Designed Newspaper award for 1994 and 1997.
News Corporation and News Corp
On May 2, 2007,
News Corporation
News Corporation (abbreviated News Corp.), also variously known as News Corporation Limited, was an American multinational mass media corporation controlled by media mogul Rupert Murdoch and headquartered at 1211 Avenue of the Americas in New ...
made an unsolicited takeover bid for Dow Jones, offering US$60 a share for stock that had been selling for US$33 a share. The
Bancroft family
The Bancroft family are the former owners of Dow Jones & Company which is now owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation (NewsCorp).
The Family
The Bancrofts are a family of publicly reclusive Boston socialites who inherited ''The Wall Stree ...
, which controlled more than 60% of the voting stock, at first rejected the offer, but later reconsidered its position.
Three months later, on August 1, 2007, News Corporation and Dow Jones entered into a definitive merger agreement. The US$5billion sale added ''The Wall Street Journal'' to
Rupert Murdoch
Keith Rupert Murdoch ( ; born 11 March 1931) is an Australian-born American business magnate. Through his company News Corp, he is the owner of hundreds of local, national, and international publishing outlets around the world, including ...
The Times
''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' (f ...
'', and locally within New York, the ''
New York Post
The ''New York Post'' (''NY Post'') is a conservative daily tabloid newspaper published in New York City. The ''Post'' also operates NYPost.com, the celebrity gossip site PageSix.com, and the entertainment site Decider.com.
It was established ...
'', along with
Fox
Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush'').
Twelve sp ...
WNYW
WNYW (channel 5) is a television station in New York City, serving as the flagship of the Fox network. It is owned and operated by the network's Fox Television Stations division alongside Secaucus, New Jersey–licensed MyNetworkTV flagsh ...
(Channel 5) and
MyNetworkTV
MyNetworkTV (unofficially abbreviated MyTV, MyNet, MNT or MNTV, and sometimes referred to as My Network) is an American commercial broadcast television syndication service and former television network owned by Fox Corporation, operated by its ...
flagship WWOR (Channel 9).
On December 13, 2007, shareholders representing more than 60 percent of Dow Jones's voting stock approved the company's acquisition by News Corporation.
In an editorial page column, publisher L. Gordon Crovitz said the Bancrofts and News Corporation had agreed that the ''Journal''s news and opinion sections would preserve their editorial independence from their new corporate parent:L. Gordon Crovitz, "A Report to Our Readers". ''The Wall Street Journal'' (New York), page A14, August 1, 2007.
A special committee was established to oversee the paper's editorial integrity. When the managing editor
Marcus Brauchli
Marcus W. Brauchli (born June 19, 1961) is a journalist, media investor and advisor. He is co-founder, along with Saša Vučinič, of North Base Media, an investment firm specialized in media and technology in global growth markets, and has served ...
resigned on April 22, 2008, the committee said that News Corporation had violated its agreement by not notifying the committee earlier. However, Brauchli said he believed that new owners should appoint their own editor.
A 2007 ''Journal'' article quoted charges that Murdoch had made and broken similar promises in the past. One large shareholder commented that Murdoch has long "expressed his personal, political and business biases through his newspapers and television stations". Former ''Times'' assistant editor
Fred Emery
Frederick Edmund Emery (27 August 1925 – 10 April 1997) was an Australian psychologist. He was one of the pioneers in the field of organizational development, particularly in the development of theory around participative work design struct ...
remembers an incident when "Mr. Murdoch called him into his office in March 1982 and said he was considering firing ''Times'' editor
Harold Evans
Sir Harold Matthew Evans (28 June 192823 September 2020) was a British-American journalist and writer. In his career in his native Britain, he was editor of ''The Sunday Times'' from 1967 to 1981, and its sister title ''The Times'' for a year f ...
. Mr. Emery says he reminded Mr. Murdoch of his promise that editors couldn't be fired without the independent directors' approval. 'God, you don't take all that seriously, do you?' Mr. Murdoch answered, according to Mr. Emery." Murdoch eventually forced out Evans.
In 2011, ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' found evidence that the ''Journal'' had artificially inflated its European sales numbers, by paying Executive Learning Partnership for purchasing 16% of European sales. These inflated sales numbers then enabled the ''Journal'' to charge similarly inflated advertising rates, as the advertisers would think that they reached more readers than they actually did. In addition, the ''Journal'' agreed to run "articles" featuring Executive Learning Partnership, presented as news, but effectively advertising. The case came to light after a Belgian ''Wall Street Journal'' employee,
Gert Van Mol
Gert Van Mol (born 1969) is a Belgian media entrepreneur.
Van Mol studied at the Université catholique de Louvain, Catholic University of Louvain. While studying he founded The Publishing Company, a publishing house, in 1990. Between 1990 and 2 ...
, informed Dow Jones CEO
Les Hinton
Leslie Frank Hinton (born 19 February 1944) is a British-American journalist, writer and business executive whose career with Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation spanned more than fifty years. Hinton worked in newspapers, magazines and television ...
about the questionable practice. As a result, the then ''Wall Street Journal Europe'' CEO and Publisher Andrew Langhoff was fired after it was found out he personally pressured journalists into covering one of the newspaper's business partners involved in the issue. Since September 2011, all the online articles that resulted from the ethical wrongdoing carry a ''Wall Street Journal'' disclaimer informing the readers about the circumstances in which they were created.
The ''Journal'', along with its parent Dow Jones & Company, was among the businesses News Corporation spun off in 2013 as the new News Corp.
In November 2016, in an effort to cut costs, the ''Journal'' editor-in-chief, Gerard Baker, announced layoffs of staff and consolidation of its print sections. The new "Business & Finance" section combined the former "Business & Tech" and "Money & Investing" sections. The new "Life & Arts" section took the place of "Personal Journal" and "Arena". In addition, the ''Journal'' "Greater New York" coverage was reduced and moved to the main section of paper. The section was shuttered on July 9, 2021.
In an October 2018
Simmons Research
Experian is an American–Irish multinational data analytics and consumer credit reporting company. Experian collects and aggregates information on over 1 billion people and businesses including 235 million individual U.S. consumers and more ...
survey of 38 news organizations, ''The Wall Street Journal'' was ranked the most trusted news organization by Americans.
Joshua Benton
Joshua Benton (born 1975) is an American journalist and writer. He is director of the Nieman Journalism Lab at Harvard University, which he founded in 2008.
Before moving to Harvard, Benton was an investigative reporter and columnist for ''The Dal ...
of the
Nieman Journalism Lab
The Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University is the primary journalism institution at Harvard. It was founded in February 1938 as the result of a $1.4 million bequest by Agnes Wahl Nieman, the widow of Lucius W. Nieman, founder of ...
at
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...
wrote that the paper's "combination of respected news pages and conservative editorial pages seem to be a magic formula for generating trust across the ideological spectrum."
The "Personal Journal" section branding was brought back in July 2020.
From 2019 through 2022, the ''Journal'' partnered with
Facebook
Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Mosk ...
to provide content for the social-media site's "News Tab". Facebook paid the ''Journal'' in excess of $10 million during that period, terminating the relationship as part of a broader shift away from news content.
On June 13, 2022, the ''Journal'' launched a product review website called ''Buy Side''. The website remains free and has a distinct team from the Journal newsroom.
Recent milestones
* ''WSJ Noted.'', a monthly digital magazine, launches on June 30, 2020, in a bid to attract younger readers.
* Reaches 3 million subscribers in May 2020
*WSJ Live became available on mobile devices in September 2011.
*''WSJ Weekend'', the weekend newspaper, expanded September 2010, with two new sections: "Off Duty" and "Review".
*"Greater New York", a stand-alone, full color section dedicated to the New York metro area, ran from April 2010 until July 2021.
*''The Wall Street Journal'' San Francisco Bay Area Edition, which focuses on local news and events, launched on November 5, 2009, appearing locally each Thursday in the print Journal and every day on online at WSJ.com/SF.
*''WSJ Weekend'', formerly called ''Saturday's Weekend Edition'': September 2005.
*Launch of ''Today's Journal'', which included both the addition of ''Personal Journal'' and color capacity to the ''Journal'': April 2002.
*Launch of ''The Wall Street Journal Sunday'': September 12, 1999. A four-page print supplement of original investing news, market reports and personal-finance advice that ran in the business sections of other U.S. newspapers. WSJ Sunday circulation peaked in 2005 with 84 newspapers reaching nearly 11 million homes. The publication ceased on February 7, 2015.
*''Friday Journal'', formerly called ''First Weekend Journal'': March 20, 1998.
*WSJ.com launched in April 1996.
*First three-section ''Journal'': October 1988.
*First two-section ''Journal'': June 1980.
Features and operations
Since 1980, the ''Journal'' has been published in multiple sections. At one time, the ''Journal'' page count averaged as much as 96 pages an issue, but with the industry-wide decline in advertising, the ''Journal'' in 2009–10 more typically published about 50 to 60 pages per issue.
, ''The Wall Street Journal'' had a global news staff of around 2,000 journalists in
85 news bureaus across 51 countries. , it had 26 printing plants.
Regularly scheduled sections are:
*Section One – every day; corporate news, as well as political and economic reporting and the opinion pages
*Marketplace – Monday through Friday; coverage of health, technology,
media
Media may refer to:
Communication
* Media (communication), tools used to deliver information or data
** Advertising media, various media, content, buying and placement for advertising
** Broadcast media, communications delivered over mass e ...
, and
marketing
Marketing is the process of exploring, creating, and delivering value to meet the needs of a target market in terms of goods and services; potentially including selection of a target audience; selection of certain attributes or themes to emph ...
industries (the second section was launched June 23, 1980)
*Money and Investing – every day; covers and analyzes international financial markets (the third section was launched October 3, 1988)
*Personal Journal – published Tuesday through Thursday; covers personal investments,
career
The career is an individual's metaphorical "journey" through learning, work and other aspects of life. There are a number of ways to define career and the term is used in a variety of ways.
Definitions
The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' defi ...
s and cultural pursuits (the section was introduced April 9, 2002)
*Off Duty – published Saturdays in WSJ Weekend; focuses on fashion, food, design, travel and gear/tech. The section was launched September 25, 2010.
*Review – published Saturdays in WSJ Weekend; focuses on essays, commentary, reviews and ideas. The section was launched September 25, 2010.
*Mansion – published Fridays; focuses on high-end real estate. The section was launched October 5, 2012.
*WSJ Magazine – Launched in 2008 as a quarterly, this luxury magazine supplement distributed within the U.S., European and Asian editions of The Wall Street Journal grew to 12 issues per year in 2014.
In addition, several columnists contribute regular features to the ''Journal'' opinion page and
OpinionJournal.com
''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...
:
* Weekdays – Best of the Web Today by James Freeman
* Monday – Americas by Mary O'Grady
* Wednesday – Business World by Holman W. Jenkins Jr.
* Thursday – Wonder Land by
Daniel Henninger
Daniel Henninger is a conservative American commentator. He serves as the deputy editorial page director of ''The Wall Street Journal'', and is a Fox News contributor.
Early life
Henninger was born in Cleveland, Ohio. He is a graduate of George ...
* Friday – Potomac Watch by
Kimberley Strassel
Kimberley Ann Strassel (born July 24, 1972) is an American conservative columnist and author who is a member of the ''Wall Street Journal'' editorial board. She writes a weekly column, "Potomac Watch", which appears on Fridays.
Early life and e ...
* Weekend Edition – Rule of Law, The Weekend Interview (variety of authors), Declarations by
Peggy Noonan
Margaret Ellen Noonan (born 1950), known as Peggy Noonan, is a weekly columnist for ''The Wall Street Journal'', and contributor to NBC News and ABC News. She was a primary speechwriter and Special Assistant to President Ronald Reagan from 1984 t ...
In addition to these regular opinion pieces, on Fridays the ''Journal'' publishes a religion-themed op-ed, titled "Houses of Worship", written by a different author each week. Authors range from the
Dalai Lama
Dalai Lama (, ; ) is a title given by the Tibetan people to the foremost spiritual leader of the Gelug or "Yellow Hat" school of Tibetan Buddhism, the newest and most dominant of the four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism. The 14th and current D ...
to cardinals.
''WSJ.''
''WSJ.'' is ''The Wall Street Journal''s luxury lifestyle magazine. Its coverage spans art, fashion, entertainment, design, food, architecture, travel and more. Kristina O'Neill is Editor in Chief and Omblyne Pelier is Publisher.
Launched as a quarterly in 2008, the magazine grew to 12 issues a year for 2014. The magazine is distributed within the U.S. Weekend Edition of ''The Wall Street Journal'' newspaper (average paid print circulation is +2.2 million*), the European and Asian editions, and is available on WSJ.com. Each issue is also available throughout the month in ''The Wall Street Journal'' iPad app.
Penélope Cruz
Penélope Cruz Sánchez (; ; born 28 April 1974) is a Spanish actress. Known for her roles in films of several genres, particularly those in the Spanish language, she has received various accolades, including an Academy Award and a British ...
,
Carmelo Anthony
Carmelo Kyam Anthony (born May 29, 1984) is an American professional basketball player who last played for the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He has been named an NBA All-Star ten times and an All-NBA Team ...
,
Woody Allen
Heywood "Woody" Allen (born Allan Stewart Konigsberg; November 30, 1935) is an American film director, writer, actor, and comedian whose career spans more than six decades and multiple Academy Award-winning films. He began his career writing ...
,
Scarlett Johansson
Scarlett Ingrid Johansson (; born November 22, 1984) is an American actress. The world's highest-paid actress in 2018 and 2019, she has featured multiple times on the ''Forbes'' Celebrity 100 list. ''Time'' magazine named her one of the 100 ...
, Emilia Clarke, Daft Punk, and Gisele Bündchen have all been featured on the cover.
In 2012, the magazine launched its signature platform, The Innovator Awards. An extension of the November Innovators issue, the awards ceremony, held in New York City at
Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues.
It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...
, honors visionaries across the fields of design, fashion, architecture, humanitarianism, art and technology. The 2013 winners were:
Alice Waters
Alice Louise Waters (born April 28, 1944) is an American chef, restaurateur, and author. In 1971 she opened Chez Panisse, a Berkeley, California restaurant famous for its role in creating the farm-to-table movement and for pioneering Californi ...
David Adjaye
Sir David Frank Adjaye (born 22 September 1966) is a Ghanaian-British architect. He is known for having designed many notable buildings around the world, including the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D. ...
(Architecture);
Do-Ho Suh
Do Ho Suh (hangul: 서도호, born 1962) is a Korean sculptor and installation artist. He also works across various media, including paintings and film which explore the concept of space and home. His work is particularly well known in relation ...
(Art);
Nick D'Aloisio Nicholas D'Aloisio (born 1 November 1995) is a British computer programmer and internet entrepreneur. He is the founder of Summly, a mobile app which automatically summarises news articles and other material, which was acquired by Yahoo for $30M ...
(Technology); Pat McGrath (Fashion); Thomas Woltz (Design).
In 2013, ''Adweek'' awarded ''WSJ.'' "Hottest Lifestyle Magazine of the Year" for its annual Hot List.
*U.S. circulation: Each issue of ''WSJ.'' is inserted into the weekend edition of ''The Wall Street Journal'', whose average paid circulation for the three months ending September 30, 2013, was 2,261,772 as reported to the Alliance for Audited Media (AAM).
OpinionJournal.com
OpinionJournal.com is a
website
A website (also written as a web site) is a collection of web pages and related content that is identified by a common domain name and published on at least one web server. Examples of notable websites are Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Wi ...
featuring content from the editorial pages of ''The Wall Street Journal''. It existed separately from the news content at wsj.com until January 2008, when it was merged into the main website.
In addition to editorials and columns from the printed newspaper, wsj.com carries two daily web-only columns:
*''Best of the Web Today'' by
James Taranto
James Taranto (born January 6, 1966) is an American journalist. He is editorial features editor for ''The Wall Street Journal'', in charge of the newspaper's op-ed pages, both print and digital.Holman W. Jenkins Jr and featuring
John Fund
John H. Fund (born April 8, 1957) is an American political journalist. He is currently the national-affairs reporter for National Review Online
and a senior editor at ''The American Spectator''.
Life and career
Fund was born in Tucson, Arizona. ...
conservative
Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...
Peggy Noonan
Margaret Ellen Noonan (born 1950), known as Peggy Noonan, is a weekly columnist for ''The Wall Street Journal'', and contributor to NBC News and ABC News. She was a primary speechwriter and Special Assistant to President Ronald Reagan from 1984 t ...
,
John Fund
John H. Fund (born April 8, 1957) is an American political journalist. He is currently the national-affairs reporter for National Review Online
and a senior editor at ''The American Spectator''.
Life and career
Fund was born in Tucson, Arizona. ...
, and
Daniel Henninger
Daniel Henninger is a conservative American commentator. He serves as the deputy editorial page director of ''The Wall Street Journal'', and is a Fox News contributor.
Early life
Henninger was born in Cleveland, Ohio. He is a graduate of George ...
.
''WSJ Noted.''
On June 30, 2020, the ''Journal'' launched ''WSJ Noted.'', a monthly digital "news and culture" magazine for subscribers aged 18–34 years old in a bid to attract a younger audience to the ''Journal''. The magazine has a group of some 7,000 young adults who are invited to preview content, provide feedback, and join Q&As with Noted staff.
''WSJ Podcasts''
The WSJ operates a podcast service WSJ Podcasts , which deliver audio podcasts along with transcripts with several channel streams, including:
What’s News
''The Wall Street Journal'' editorial board members oversee the ''Journal'''s editorial page, dictating the tone and direction of the newspaper's opinion section. ''The Wall Street Journal'' does not provide details on the exact duties of board members.
Every Saturday and Sunday, three editorial page writers and host
Paul Gigot
Paul Anthony Gigot (; born May 24, 1955) is an American Pulitzer Prize–winning conservative political commentator and editor of the editorial pages for ''The Wall Street Journal''. He is also the moderator of the public affairs television seri ...
Journal Editorial Report
The ''Journal Editorial Report'' is a weekly American interview and panel discussion TV program on Fox News Channel, hosted by Paul Gigot, editorial page editor of ''The Wall Street Journal''. Prior to moving to Fox News, the show aired on PBS f ...
'' to discuss current issues with a variety of guests. As editors of the editorial page, Vermont C. Royster (served 1958–1971) and Robert L. Bartley (served 1972–2000) were especially influential in providing a
conservative
Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...
interpretation of the news on a daily basis.Richard Vetter, "Wall Street Journal", in Bruce Frohnen, ed. '' American Conservatism'' (2006), pp. 898–99.
Contrasts have been noted between the ''Journal'''s news reporting and its editorial pages. "While ''Journal'' reporters keep busy informing readers," wrote one reporter in 1982, "''Journal'' editorial writers put forth views that often contradict the paper's best reporting and news analysis." Two summaries published in 1995 by the progressive blog
Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting
Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting (FAIR) is a progressive left-leaning media critique organization based in New York City. The organization was founded in 1986 by Jeff Cohen and Martin A. Lee. FAIR monitors American news media for bias, inaccu ...
, and in 1996 by the ''
Columbia Journalism Review
The ''Columbia Journalism Review'' (''CJR'') is a biannual magazine for professional journalists that has been published by the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism since 1961. Its contents include news and media industry trends, an ...
'' criticized the ''Journal'' editorial page for inaccuracy during the 1980s and 1990s. One reference work in 2011 described the editorial pages as "rigidly neoconservative" while noting that the news coverage "has enjoyed a sterling reputation among readers of all political stripes".
In July 2020, more than 280 ''Journal'' journalists and Dow Jones staff members wrote a letter to new publisher
Almar Latour
Almar Latour is a media executive and current CEO of Dow Jones and Company.
Early life and education
Latour grew up in the small Dutch town of Welten. During his childhood education he studied German, English, Dutch, and French. Through the F ...
to criticize the opinion pages' "lack of fact-checking and transparency, and its apparent disregard for evidence", adding that "opinion articles often make assertions that are contradicted by ''WSJ'' reporting." The editorial board responded that its opinion pages "won't wilt under cancel-culture pressure" and that the objective of the editorial content is to be independent of the ''Journal''s news content and offer alternative views to "the uniform progressive views that dominate nearly all of today's media." The board's response did not address issues regarding fact-checking that had been raised in the letter.
Editorial positions
Economic
During the Reagan administration, the newspaper's editorial page was particularly influential as the leading voice for supply-side economics. Under the editorship of Robert Bartley, it expounded at length on economic concepts such as the Laffer curve, and how a decrease in certain marginal tax rates and the
capital gains tax
A capital gains tax (CGT) is the tax on profits realized on the sale of a non-inventory asset. The most common capital gains are realized from the sale of stocks, bonds, precious metals, real estate, and property.
Not all countries impose a c ...
could allegedly increase overall tax revenue by generating more economic activity.
In the economic argument of
exchange rate regime
An exchange rate regime is a way a monetary authority of a country or currency union manages the currency about other currencies and the foreign exchange market. It is closely related to monetary policy and the two are generally dependent on many ...
s (one of the most divisive issues among economists), the ''Journal'' has a tendency to support
fixed exchange rate
A fixed exchange rate, often called a pegged exchange rate, is a type of exchange rate regime in which a currency's value is fixed or pegged by a monetary authority against the value of another currency, a basket of other currencies, or another ...
The ''Journal'' editorial pages and columns, run separately from the news pages, have a
conservative
Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...
bent and are highly influential in establishment conservative circles. Despite this, the ''Journal'' refrains from endorsing candidates and has not endorsed a candidate since 1928.
The editorial board has long argued for a pro-business immigration policy.
The ''Journal'' editorial page has been seen as critical of many aspects of
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the ...
's presidency. In particular, it has been a prominent critic of the
Affordable Care Act
The Affordable Care Act (ACA), formally known as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and colloquially known as Obamacare, is a landmark U.S. federal statute enacted by the 111th United States Congress and signed into law by Pres ...
legislation passed in 2010, and has featured many opinion columns attacking various aspects of the bill. The ''Journal'' editorial page has also criticized the Obama administration's energy policies and foreign policy.
On October 25, 2017, the editorial board called for Special Counsel Robert Mueller to resign from the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections and accused Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign of colluding with Russia. In December 2017, the editorial board repeated its calls for Mueller's resignation. The editorials by the editorial board caused fractures within ''The Wall Street Journal'', as reporters say that the editorials undermine the paper's credibility.
In October 2021, the editorial board let former President Donald Trump publish a letter in the editorial pages of the paper. The news sources described the contents of the letter as false and debunked claims about the
2020 presidential election
This national electoral calendar for 2020 lists the national/federal elections held in 2020 in all sovereign states and their dependent territories. By-elections are excluded, though national referendums are included.
January
*5 January:
**C ...
. In response to criticism of the ''Journals decision to publish the letter, the editorial board said the criticism was "cancel-culture pressure".
Scientific
The ''Journal'' editorial pages were described as a "forum for climate change denial" in 2011 due to columns that attacked climate scientists and accused them of engaging in fraud. A 2011 study found that the ''Journal'' was alone among major American print news media in how, mainly in its editorial pages, it adopted a
false balance
False balance, also bothsidesism, is a media bias in which journalists present an issue as being more balanced between opposing viewpoints than the evidence supports. Journalists may present evidence and arguments out of proportion to the act ...
that overplayed the uncertainty in climate science or denied anthropogenic climate change altogether. That year, the
Associated Press
The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. ne ...
described the ''Journal'''s editorial pages as "a place friendly to climate change skeptics". In 2013, the editorial board and other opinion writers vocally criticized President
Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, Obama was the first Af ...
's plan to address climate change, mostly without mentioning climate science. A 2015 study found ''The Wall Street Journal'' was the newspaper that was least likely to present negative
effects of global warming
The effects of climate change impact the physical environment, ecosystems and human societies. The environmental effects of climate change are broad and far-reaching. They affect the water cycle, oceans, sea and land ice (glaciers), sea lev ...
among several newspapers. It was also the most likely to present negative economic framing when discussing climate change mitigation policies, tending to take the stance that the cost of such policies generally outweighs their benefit.
Climate Feedback
Climate Feedback (CF) is a web-based content annotation tool that allows qualified scientists to comment on stories online, adding context and noting inaccuracies. It is one of three websites under the Science Feedback parent organization that ...
, a fact-checking website on media coverage of climate science, determined that multiple opinion articles range between "low" and "very low" in terms of scientific credibility. The Partnership for Responsible Growth stated in 2016 that 14% of the guest editorials on climate change presented the results of "mainstream climate science", while the majority did not. The Partnership also determined that none of the 201 editorials concerning climate change that were published in ''The Wall Street Journal'' since 1997 conceded that the burning of fossil fuels is the main cause of climate change.
In the 1980s and 1990s, the ''Journal'' published numerous columns opposing and misrepresenting the scientific consensus on the harms of
second-hand smoke
Passive smoking is the inhalation of tobacco smoke, called secondhand smoke (SHS), or environmental tobacco smoke (ETS), by persons other than the intended "active" smoker. It occurs when tobacco smoke enters an environment, causing its inhalat ...
, acid rain, and ozone depletion, in addition to public policy efforts to curb pesticides and asbestos. The ''Journal'' later recognized that efforts to curb acid rain through cap-and-trade had been successful, a decade after the Clean Air Act Amendments.
Political views
Its reporting has been described as "small-c conservatism". Some of the ''Journal'' former reporters claim that the paper has adopted a more conservative tone since
Rupert Murdoch
Keith Rupert Murdoch ( ; born 11 March 1931) is an Australian-born American business magnate. Through his company News Corp, he is the owner of hundreds of local, national, and international publishing outlets around the world, including ...
's purchase.
Bias in news pages
Pre-Murdoch ownership
The ''Journal''s editors stress the independence and impartiality of their reporters. According to CNN in 2007, the ''Journal'''s "newsroom staff has a reputation for non-partisan reporting." Ben Smith of the ''New York Times'' described the ''Journal'''s news reporting as "small-c onservative, and noted that its readership leans further to the right than other major newspapers.
In a 2004 study, Tim Groseclose and
Jeffrey Milyo
Jeffrey Dennis Milyo is an American economist and professor of economics at the University of Missouri. He is also a senior fellow at the Cato Institute. One of his best-known studies is a 2005 one that he co-authored with Timothy Groseclose exam ...
argue the ''Journal'' news pages have a pro-liberal bias because they more often quote liberal think tanks. They calculated the ideological attitude of news reports in 20 media outlets by counting the frequency they cited particular
think tank
A think tank, or policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, technology, and culture. Most think tanks are non-governmenta ...
s and comparing that to the frequency that legislators cited the same think tanks. They found that the news reporting of the ''Journal'' was the most liberal (more liberal than
NPR
National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...
or ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
''). The study did not factor in editorials.
Mark Liberman
Mark Yoffe Liberman is an American linguist. He has a dual appointment at the University of Pennsylvania, as Trustee Professor of Phonetics in the Department of Linguistics, and as a professor in the Department of Computer and Information Scienc ...
criticized the model used to calculate bias in the study and argued that the model unequally affected liberals and conservatives and that "the model starts with a very peculiar assumption about the relationship between political opinion and the choice of authorities to cite." The authors assume that "think tank ideology ... only matters to liberals."
The company's planned and eventual acquisition by News Corp in 2007 led to significant media criticism and discussion
about whether the news pages would exhibit a rightward slant under
Rupert Murdoch
Keith Rupert Murdoch ( ; born 11 March 1931) is an Australian-born American business magnate. Through his company News Corp, he is the owner of hundreds of local, national, and international publishing outlets around the world, including ...
. An August 1, 2007 editorial responded to the questions by asserting that Murdoch intended to "maintain the values and integrity of the ''Journal''".
During Trump presidency
In 2016 and 2017, the ''Journal'' leadership under Baker came under fire from critics, both from the outside and from within the newsroom, who viewed the paper's coverage of President
Donald Trump
Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021.
Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of P ...
as too timid. Particularly controversial was the ''Journal''s November 2016 front-page headline that repeated Trump's false claim that "millions of people" had voted illegally in the
election
An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office.
Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has opera ...
, only noting that the statement was "without corroboration".
Also controversial was a January 2017 note from Baker to ''Journal'' editors, directing them to avoid using the phrase "seven majority-Muslim countries" when writing about Trump's executive order on travel and immigration; Baker later sent a follow-up note "clarifying that there was 'no ban'" on the phrase, "but that the publication should 'always be careful that this term is not offered as the only description of the countries covered under the ban.'"
At a town-hall-style meeting with Journal staff in February 2017, Baker defended the paper's coverage, saying that it was objective and protected the paper from being "dragged into the political process" through a dispute with the Trump administration.
A 2018 survey conducted by Gallup and the Knight Foundation found that ''The Wall Street Journal'' was considered the third most-accurate and fourth most-unbiased news organization among the general public, tenth among Democrats, and second among Republicans.
On February 19, 2020, China announced the revoking of the press credentials of three ''Wall Street Journal'' reporters based in Beijing. China accused the paper of failing to apologize for publishing articles that criticized China's efforts to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, and failing to investigate and punish those responsible.
In June 2020, following the
murder of George Floyd
On , George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, was murdered in the U.S. city of Minneapolis by Derek Chauvin, a 44-year-old white police officer. Floyd had been arrested on suspicion of using a counterfeit $20 bill. Chauvin knelt on Floyd's ...
and subsequent protests, journalists at the ''Journal'' sent a letter to editor in chief Matt Murray demanding changes to the way the paper covers race, policing and finance. The reporters stated that they "frequently meet resistance when trying to reflect the accounts and voices of workers, residents or customers, with some editors voicing heightened skepticism of those sources’ credibility compared with executives, government officials or other entities".
Notable stories and Pulitzer Prizes
The ''Journal'' has won 38 Pulitzer Prizes in its history. Staff journalists who led some of the newspaper's best-known coverage teams have later published books that summarized and extended their reporting.
1987: RJR Nabisco buyout
In 1987, a bidding war ensued between several financial firms for tobacco and food giant RJR Nabisco. Bryan Burrough and John Helyar documented the events in more than two dozen ''Journal'' articles. Burrough and Helyar later used these articles as the basis of a bestselling book, '' Barbarians at the Gate: The Fall of RJR Nabisco'', which was turned into a film for HBO.
1988: Insider trading
In the 1980s, then-''Journal'' reporter
James B. Stewart
James Bennett Stewart (born c. 1952) is an American lawyer, journalist, and author.
Early life and education
Stewart was born in Quincy, Illinois. He graduated from DePauw University and Harvard Law School.
Career
He is a member of the Bar o ...
brought national attention to the illegal practice of insider trading. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in explanatory journalism in 1988, which he shared with
Daniel Hertzberg Daniel Hertzberg (born February 3, 1946) is an American journalist. Hertzberg is a 1968 graduate of the University of Chicago. He married Barbara Kantrowitz, on August 29, 1976. He was the former senior deputy managing editor and later deputy manag ...
, who went on to serve as the paper's senior deputy managing editor before resigning in 2009. Stewart expanded on this theme in his 1991 book, '' Den of Thieves''.
1997: AIDS treatment
David Sanford, a Page One features editor who was infected with
HIV
The human immunodeficiency viruses (HIV) are two species of ''Lentivirus'' (a subgroup of retrovirus) that infect humans. Over time, they cause acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), a condition in which progressive failure of the immune ...
in 1982 in a bathhouse, wrote a front-page personal account of how, with the assistance of improved treatments for HIV, he went from planning his death to planning his retirement. He and six other reporters wrote about the new treatments, political and economic issues, and won the 1997
Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting
This Pulitzer Prize has been awarded since 1942 for a distinguished example of reporting on national affairs in the United States. In its first six years (1942–1947), it was called the Pulitzer Prize for Telegraphic Reporting – National.
Li ...
Jonathan Weil, a reporter at the Dallas bureau of ''The Wall Street Journal'', is credited with first breaking the story of financial abuses at
Enron
Enron Corporation was an American energy, commodities, and services company based in Houston, Texas. It was founded by Kenneth Lay in 1985 as a merger between Lay's Houston Natural Gas and InterNorth, both relatively small regional compani ...
in September 2000. Rebecca Smith and John R. Emshwiller reported on the story regularly, and wrote a book, ''24 Days''. In October 2021, the ''Journal'' released Bad Bets, a podcast that recounted the papers reporting on Enron.
2001: 9/11
The ''Journal'' claims to have sent the first news report, on the Dow Jones wire, of a plane crashing into the
World Trade Center
World Trade Centers are sites recognized by the World Trade Centers Association.
World Trade Center may refer to:
Buildings
* List of World Trade Centers
* World Trade Center (2001–present), a building complex that includes five skyscrapers, a ...
on
September 11, 2001
The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commerc ...
. Its headquarters, at
One World Financial Center
200 Liberty Street, formerly known as One World Financial Center, is one of four towers that comprise the Brookfield Place complex in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. Rising 40 floors and , it is situated between the ...
, was severely damaged by the collapse of the World Trade Center just across the street.Bussey, John. The Eye of the Storm: One Journey Through Desperation and Chaos ". ''The Wall Street Journal'', page A1, September 12, 2001. Retrieved August 8, 2007. Top editors worried that they might miss publishing the first issue for the first time in the paper's 112-year history. They relocated to a makeshift office at an editor's home, while sending most of the staff to Dow Jones's
South Brunswick Township, New Jersey
South Brunswick is a township in Middlesex County, New Jersey, United States. The township is centrally located within the Raritan Valley region and is an outer-ring suburb of New York City in the New York metropolitan area. As of th2020 Unit ...
, corporate campus, where the paper had established emergency editorial facilities soon after the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. The paper was on the stands the next day, albeit in scaled-down form. Perhaps the most compelling story in that day's edition was a first-hand account of the Twin Towers' collapse written by then-Foreign Editor John Bussey, who holed up in a ninth-floor Journal office, literally in the shadow of the towers, from where he phoned in live reports to
CNBC
CNBC (formerly Consumer News and Business Channel) is an American basic cable business news channel. It provides business news programming on weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., Eastern Time, while broadcasting talk sho ...
as the towers burned. He narrowly escaped serious injury when the first tower collapsed, shattering all the windows in the ''Journal'' offices and filling them with dust and debris. The ''Journal'' won a 2002 Pulitzer Prize in Breaking News Reporting for that day's stories.
The ''Journal'' subsequently conducted a worldwide investigation of the causes and significance of 9/11, using contacts it had developed while covering business in the Arab world. In
Kabul, Afghanistan
Kabul (; ps, , ; , ) is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. Located in the eastern half of the country, it is also a municipality, forming part of the Kabul Province; it is administratively divided into 22 municipal districts. Acco ...
, a reporter from ''The Wall Street Journal'' bought a pair of looted computers that Al Qaeda leaders had used to plan assassinations, chemical and biological attacks, and mundane daily activities. The encrypted files were decrypted and translated. It was during this coverage that terrorists kidnapped and killed ''Journal'' reporter
Daniel Pearl
Daniel Pearl (October 10, 1963 – February 1, 2002) was an American journalist who worked for ''The Wall Street Journal.'' He was kidnapped and later decapitated by terrorists in Pakistan.'
Pearl was born in Princeton, New Jersey, and rais ...
.
2007: Stock option scandal
In 2007, the paper won the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service, with its iconic gold medal, for exposing companies that illegally Options backdating, backdate stock options they awarded executives to increase their value.
2008: Bear Stearns fall
Kate Kelly wrote a three-part series that detailed events that led to the collapse of Bear Stearns.
2010: McDonald's health care
A report published on September 30, 2010, detailing allegations McDonald's had plans to drop health coverage for hourly employees drew criticism from McDonald's as well as the Obama administration. ''The Wall Street Journal'' reported the plan to drop coverage stemmed from new health care requirements under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. McDonald's called the report "speculative and misleading", stating they had no plans to drop coverage. ''The Wall Street Journal'' report and subsequent rebuttal received coverage from several other media outlets.
2015: Malaysia Prime Minister Najib Razak and 1MDB
In 2015, a report published by ''The Journal'' alleged that up to US$700 million was wired from 1MDB, a Malaysian state investment company, to the personal accounts of Malaysia Prime Minister Najib Razak at AmBank, the fifth largest lender in Malaysia. Razak responded by threatening to sue the New York-based newspaper. The Journal's reporting on the 1Malaysia Development Berhad scandal, 1MDB scandal was a finalist for the 2016 Pulitzer Prize in international reporting.
The report prompted some governmental agencies in Malaysia to conduct an investigation into the allegation. On July 28, 2020, Najib Razak was found guilty on seven charges in the 1MDB scandal. He was sentenced to 12 years in prison.
2015–present: Theranos investigation
In 2015, a report written by the ''Journal'' John Carreyrou alleged that blood testing company Theranos' technology was faulty and founder Elizabeth Holmes was misleading investors. According to ''Vanity Fair (magazine), Vanity Fair'', "a damning report published in ''The Wall Street Journal'' had alleged that the company was, in effect, a sham—that its vaunted core technology was actually faulty and that Theranos administered almost all of its blood tests using competitors' equipment." The ''Journal'' has subsequently published several more reports questioning Theranos' and Holmes' credibility. In May 2018, Carreyrou released a book about Theranos, ''Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup, Bad Blood'', which met with critical success (and was compared to Stewart's ''Den of Thieves''). The following month, the United States Attorney for the Northern District of California, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of California announced the indictment of Holmes on wire fraud and conspiracy charges in relation to her role as CEO of Theranos. Holmes was United States v. Elizabeth A. Holmes, et al., found guilty on four of the eleven original charges in January 2022.
Rupert Murdoch
Keith Rupert Murdoch ( ; born 11 March 1931) is an Australian-born American business magnate. Through his company News Corp, he is the owner of hundreds of local, national, and international publishing outlets around the world, including ...
—at the time a major investor in Theranos and owner of the ''Journal''—lost approximately $100 million in his investments in Theranos.
2018–present: Investigation into Stormy Daniels payment
On January 12, 2018, Michael Rothfeld and Joe Palazzolo reported in ''The Wall Street Journal'' that during the 2016 United States presidential election, 2016 presidential campaign, then-candidate
Donald Trump
Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021.
Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of P ...
's personal lawyer, Michael Cohen (lawyer), Michael Cohen coordinated a $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels for her silence regarding an alleged affair. In subsequent reports, the method of payment and many other details were extensively covered. In April of that year, Federal Bureau of Investigation, FBI agents stormed Cohen's home, seizing records related to the transaction. On August 21, 2018, Cohen pleaded guilty to eight counts including campaign finance violations in connection with the Daniels payment. The coverage earned the ''Journal'' the 2019
Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting
This Pulitzer Prize has been awarded since 1942 for a distinguished example of reporting on national affairs in the United States. In its first six years (1942–1947), it was called the Pulitzer Prize for Telegraphic Reporting – National.
Li ...
.
See also
* William Peter Hamilton
* ''The Economic Times''
* ''Far Eastern Economic Review''
* ''Index of Economic Freedom'' – an annual report published by the ''Journal'' together with The Heritage Foundation
* Lucky duckies
* Media in New York City
* ''On the Money (2013 TV series)'' – the current title of a CNBC-produced program known as ''The Wall Street Journal Report'' from 1970 until the CNBC/Dow Jones split in January 2013.
*''The Wall Street Journal Special Editions''
* Wall Street Journal Radio Network
* Worth Bingham Prize
* Billion Dollar Whale (book), Billion dollar whale
References
Further reading
*
* Douai, Aziz, and Terry Wu. "News as business: the global financial crisis and Occupy movement in the Wall Street Journal". ''Journal of International Communication'' 20.2 (2014): 148–167.
* Merrill, John C., and Harold A. Fisher. ''The world's great dailies: profiles of fifty newspapers'' (1980), pp. 338–41.
* Rosenberg, Jerry M. ''Inside The Wall Street Journal: The History and the Power of Dow Jones & Company and America's Most Influential Newspaper'' (1982 online * Sakurai, Takuya. "Framing a Trade Policy: An Analysis of The Wall Street Journal Coverage of Super 301". ''Intercultural Communication Studies'' 24.3 (2015) online * Steinbock, Dan. "Building dynamic capabilities: The Wall Street Journal interactive edition: A successful online subscription model (1993–2000)". ''International Journal on Media Management'' 2.3-4 (2000): 178–194.
* Yarrow, Andrew L. "The big postwar story: Abundance and the rise of economic journalism". ''Journalism History'' 32.2 (2006): 58 online
* [https://online.wsj.com/articles/about-us-1384185904?tesla=y ''The Wall Street Journal'' editorial board]
Wall Street Journal Editorials page
OpinionJournal website (redirector)
* of the WSJ website
* on the WSJ website
* ''Political Diary'' (paid subscription required)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wall Street Journal, The
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