A special newsletter celebrated the relationship
The "special relationship" between the US and the UK is working very well at The Wall Street Journal Europe.
Last week the newspaper’s US executives and British former Financial Times journalist Hugo Dixon celebrated the second year of their partnership, which brought the financial analysis of his website, breakingviews.com, into print.
The website has not only survived the pricking of the dot.com bubble, but thrived.
"Linking up with the WSJE really put us on the map," said Dixon. "The combination of that great authoritative platform and our content has really given us a foundation stone to build on.
"We now have seven newspaper partners across Europe, stretching down from Finland to Italy, and it is this combination of print, which gives authority and reach, and the electronic, online distribution which appeals to people who need to have instant insights – first with the views – which other people are struggling to emulate."
The website editorial team of Dixon, Rob Cox, Mike Monnelly and Paul Raynes are in the office every day at 7.15am, he said, adding ruefully: "And that’s not an easy thing to do."
Fred Kempe, WSJE editor and associate publisher, said the link with breakingviews.com had come about because of his company’s desire to grasp a European opportunity.
"We wanted to seize this market and we wanted to have the most incisive, timely and smartest financial commentary we could have," he said. The column was now one of the best-read features in the newspaper, he added.
Dixon and breakingviews helped the WSJE to win the Harold Wincott Award as UK Business Journal of the Year. "It recognised our newspaper for its unrivalled thoroughness and authenticity, particularly citing coverage of September 11 and Enron," Kempe said.
"At the same time it recognised that we had become locally relevant and globally unsurpassed."
Karen House, president, international, of parent company Dow Jones, endorsed the idea that what bound the British and US companies together was their interest in quality journalism, "giving you not only a set of facts but putting information in context".
Jean Morgan
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