As long as I can remember I’ve read the New York Times (I grew up in NYC). Since the mid 90s — when I moved from being a newspaper critic to the Web universe, both covering it and participating in it — I’ve also read the Wall Street Journal daily. The Journal, despite its paleolithic editorial page, had a whole different slice of material than the Times: more in-depth coverage of tech business, lengthy investigative features, those quirky column-three features on the front page. The two papers were complementary.
Now, under Murdoch, the Journal is getting more — there’s no other word for it — redundant. The front page has more news headlines and fewer unique features. Increasingly, I find myself saying, “I’ve already read this.”
I don’t get why Murdoch is pushing the Journal to be more generic. The stuff the Journal does that nobody else does is the only reason to buy the paper (or read it online). Breaking news and color photos are commodities today.
Maybe Murdoch sees himself moving into some sort of old-fashioned newspaper war with the Times. But from where I sit, he’s just pushing me closer to the point where I say, “Why do I need two newspapers?”
Post Revisions:
There are no revisions for this post.