Few tears, if any, are being shed over Rupert Murdoch’s decision to move the offices of the Wall Street Journal from New York’s financial district to-midtown Manhattan.
The plan is to move the WSJ into the offices of News Corp, which are close to Times Square True, there have been some who say: ‘How can the Wall Street Journal be edited and published so far from Wall Street?’but they are in a minority.
In fact many Journal staff – especially those who commute from the suburbs welcome the move. The News Corp offices, housed in a modern 45-storey skyscraper, are located near bus and subway stations, restaurants, theatres, restaurants and good bars.
Although it is more than a century since the WSJ started with messengers carrying news reports, or ‘flimsies’as they were called, to local businesses from a basement office at No l5 Wall Street, it’s been several years since The Journal has physically been located on the famous street. Even after the attack on the World Trade Centre it remained within a short walk of the financial centre. That was after the Journal’s managing editor Paul Steiger averred ‘We are not going to let the bastards chase us out of here.’
That was 200l, but now a lot of WSJ staff are privately saying ‘Good riddance’and welcome the move. The new offices have sleek hallways and corridors. The newsroom is more like a library with lots of quiet cubicles. If there one disadvantage it’s that Murdoch has his office in the building – and can easily drop in on whoever he pleases, any time.
There is even a gymn in the building where, if they are inclined , staffs from the various Murdoch enterprises, including the Fox TV network and the NY Post, can fraternize if they wish on the treadmills.
Meanwhile plans are pushing ahead for the new colour magazine that the WSJ is planning to launch later this year. It may start as a quarterly, but it’s now said it will ultimately become a monthly. So far the response from advertisers has been encouraging. At least 25 big companies have signed up for the first issue.
It’s editor Tina Gaudoin, whose appointment was announced earlier this week, has already been scouting the scene. She will return to London – where she has been editing Luxx, the quarterly supplement of The Times, which was launched last year – and then return to New York in a few weeks. She has yet to start hiring staff.
What the new magazine will be called is still in the air. Originally it was to be called Pursuits – but that has been abandoned ‘It was just a working title, ‘said a spokesman.End
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