• by Tom Siebert , December 5, 2006

The Wall Street Journal unveiled a new look yesterday for its flagship edition--a smaller and "tighter" daily newspaper that will focus more on news analysis and less on actual news events. Plus, it's encouraging readers to access the publication across all its platforms--print and online--throughout the day.

The new design means cutting back from six columns to five--the far-left news story will be jettisoned, with the two column "What's News" thumbnails now flush left. The newspaper will also reduce its width from 15 inches to 12 inches, in line with most American broadsheets. There will also be shorter stories, more color and charts, and easier-to-find jumps on continued stories.

The paper's publisher Gordon Crovitz and managing editor Paul Steiger said the new edition would launch Jan. 2, accompanied by a giveaway launch of 500,000 newspapers at newsstands across the country to showcase the new design. The online edition of the paper will also be free that day.

Crovitz said women and younger people--two demographics that are key targets for raising the paper's circulation--were particularly enthused about the paper's new look.

Steiger added that the amount of news in the daily paper would be reduced by 10% because of the diminished width, although he claimed half of that would come from statistical information that is being moved online. Crovitz said the cost savings would be approximately $18 million.

"We are not platform neutral," Crovitz said. "We want readers to use both." He pointed out that the paper's redesign was part of a larger communications strategy from the Journal, more suited to changing reader behavior, which accesses news throughout the day: Newspaper at home, BlackBerry during the commute, and online during the workday.

For that reason, breaking news will run almost exclusively online, while the newspaper will increase the percentage of analysis stories, or what Crovitz called "second-day stories the first day."

Steiger said the coverage, which is currently split about 50-50 between news and analysis, will now focus about 80% on "what it means, not what happened." He pledged the analysis would be "enlightened ... not punditry, not thumb-sucker stories."

Mario Garcia, who revamped the American daily after redesigning its international editions into tabloids, said the new look would benefit advertisers, too. "Thinner pages mean the paper will be read and held open, less folding over. Readers will see the ad on the right page, while reading on the left."

Crovitz said one big reader complaint the redesign addresses is jumps, or stories continued on another page. The new look will send all continued front-page stories to one of two facing pages, located just before the editorial pages. All inside-section front-page stories will be continued on page two.

In response to concerns about the diminishing number of younger readers, the Journal is also launching a mentoring program to make the paper available in print and online for young executives.

Crovitz said the paper would also expand its style "business of life" coverage. Last year, the paper launched a more feature-oriented Saturday edition. In the Monday to Friday edition, there will be a greater focus on style.