• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, September 4, 2007

Building up its ad-supported content offerings, The Wall Street Journal has relaunched its online channel for small business owners. Swapping the name "Startup Journal" for "Entrepreneur," the free site carries small business reports and columns including the "Small Talk" question-and-answer column by Kelly Spors, along with bolstered videos and podcasts featuring interviews and advice from small business owners nationwide.

The new Entrepreneur channel is organized into tabs or sections including Financing, Running a Business, On Technology, Building Awareness, Franchising, and Small Business Link. For the past four years, MasterCard has advertised with StartupJournal.com, and will serve as launch advertiser for the new Entrepreneur channel as well. Each page of the channel has an integrated "MasterCard Business Center" tab that clicks through to a cobranded MasterCard Web site.

"Our long-standing partnership with The Wall Street Journal's small business channels is a highly effective communications platform for reaching small businesses and closely aligns our brand with one of the most respected names in small business content," said Bruno Perreault, Group Head, Small and Mid-Sized Enterprises, MasterCard Worldwide.

For the first two weeks, an expandable roll-up ad unit from MasterCard is slated to run on the channel's home page. Launch advertising featuring MasterCard will also run in the print Journal and across The Wall Street Journal Digital Network, which includes WSJ.com, MarketWatch.com, Barron's Online and AllThingsD.com.