• by Ken Liebeskind , April 10, 2002

Peter Kann, chairman/CEO of Dow Jones & Co., called content the key to the new Wall Street Journal at a press function to launch the redesigned newspaper on Wall St. yesterday. But advertising will play a key role, too. The first new issue was sold out, with every ad position taken, including a five-page ad for Westin Hotels & Resorts in the new Personal Journal section.

Personal Journal is the paper's major content change. But the advertising it contains, beyond the content, will be essential if Dow Jones hopes to recoup the more than $200 million it spent redeveloping the paper and generate profit in the future.

In brief remarks to reporters, Kann said the advertising environment "remains difficult, although there have been incremental improvements with lessening decline." He referred to growth in certain categories, including health care and auto, which is precisely the kind of advertising that will run in Personal Journal, since it is devoted to personal issues like health and cars.

Personal finance and business travel will be two other big categories for Personal Journal, according to Steve Howe, vice president of advertising at the Journal.

The new section and other redesign elements won't just allow for new ad categories, but new ad positions as well. New column borders and other design elements will "afford advertisers adjacencies they never had before," Howe says.

One of the biggest changes to the paper is the addition of more color. The Journal previously ran color at the front of the Marketplace and Weekend Journal sections. Now there is color on the front page for the first time and other areas throughout the paper. In the past advertisers could buy full color pages, but now half page color positions are possible, which Howe hopes will be popular among advertisers because they're less expensive than full pages. There are now 20 color ad positions every day--15 full page and five half page, compared with just six before the redesign, he says.

Another benefit of the redesign is the ability to advertise in different areas of the paper. Howe says an automotive advertiser, who he declined to name, ran a branding ad in Section A, an ad for pre-certified cars in Marketplace and a new car launch in Personal Journal. The addition of the new content makes this possible.

It will be Howe's job to sell space in the redesigned paper. Another strategy will be cross media packages in the newspaper, Wsj.com and the company's magazines, including Barron's, he says.