• by John Gaffney , July 2, 2002

A Good Hand To Play: Dow Jones made some exec changes at The Wall Street Journal yesterday, and the paper’s new leaders have nothing less than the burden of an industry on their shoulders. Richard Zannino was named chief operating officer and Karen Elliot House was named senior vice president and publisher of all print editions. Zannino had been CFO; House comes from international. Former publisher Peter Kann remains as editorial director. This team takes hold of arguably the strongest editorial product in the business. But it has to show Dow Jones and the rest of the newspaper business that a financial, national newspaper can increase print revenue. Nothing like a hot market to create geniuses. Nothing like a downturn to show good work ethic and creativity. Zannino and House need to lean heavily on creativity. In fact, I think they need first of all to be evangelists for the power of branding and positive image advertising to create a new platform for the paper’s growth. The reasons to run pages in the Journal have not changed. It is the premiere editorial environment for people who make decisions about money. The issue is the audience. The days when everybody from your Uncle Frank to Suze Orman considered themselves financial market players has waned. Now, if you’re pitching Merrill Lynch, you pitch them on solidifying brand loyalty for its core audience. You pitch them on market building again. You pitch them on a campaign to solidify its integrity. All of these are still solid ad pitches, and with a redesigned product and solid website, the WSJ has strong cards to play.

But Connie’s Holding Deuces: If CNN wants Connie Chung to get better ratings for her new 8 pm time slot, they need to get some programming right. Example: last night Wolf Blitzer, who I thought was focused on Washington DC, got the story on Camilla and Charles. Connie got an interview with fired CIA agent Jeffrey Sterling, who claims race played a role in his departure. And Larry King had Ed McMahon. At least they got one right. (you are corrrrrrect, sir). Give Wolf Jeffrey Sterling. Give Connie the royals. I think Connie Chung can do a great job of bringing people in the news (not entertainers, real people) to a mass audience. But the programming around her needs to clear out a bit.

The Importance of Being Earnest: According to media coverage analyst CARMA International, the best press coverage so far this year has been afforded to brands that have managed to avoid the harsh glare of scandal. Among them: GM, Sony, WalMart, Apple, Toyota and Dell. I won’t insult your intelligence by listing the big losers. But I will tell you that Microsoft checked in at number nine, which I can’t believe. Even considering the nasty little anti-trust spat, Microsoft looks to me like it has been spun better than Michelle Kwan.