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October 16, 2008

Wall Street Journal sales soar amid financial crisis

By Press Gazette

Newsstand sales of the Wall Street Journal, now owned by Rupert Murdoch, soared last month.

The increase of over 20 per cent is largely attributed to the world financial crisis, but also comes after the WSJ has adopted a more newsy look. Its front page is now more like a regular newspaper – and closer in appearance to its biggest American rivals, the NY Times and Washington Post. It now runs political stories, as well as financial ones. on page one.

At the same time as its street sales have gone up, so have lto the paper’s website. They have almost doubled, closing on 25 million,

The Journal’s managing editor Robert Thomson conceded that the big story, the economic crisis, had contributed to the uptick in sales., “Obviously the story helps” he said. News-stand sales are usually only five per cent of the WSJ’s total sales, but they are traditionally regarded as a good gauge of the paper’s overall vitality. The extra sales has not so far increased the WSJ’s ad income. Like most American newspapers the paper is suffering a drop off in advertising – which some analysts predict will fall at least ten per cent by next year .

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