By Sree Sreenivasan
DNAinfo Contributing Editor
At 5:40 this morning, a thud outside my door signaled the arrival of a new newspaper, "Greater New York."
OK, it's just a new section of the Wall Street Journal, but based on the buzz that has generated, we appear to be in the midst of a new newspaper war.
A New York edition of the Journal? When word of the new edition spread last year, it seemed like an odd idea. After all, that paper has had a major Manhattan street in its name since it first began publishing in July 1889. But the paper's single-minded focus on economic and financial news made it a national business newspaper, one that covered items in its backyard only when it involved the corporate world.
When Rupert Murdoch bought the Journal in 2007, he had made it clear that he was going to change the paper and make it compete more directly with the New York Times. Covering more general interest news and increasing the amount of international coverage were the first steps in taking on the Times. This new print edition, along with a Web section at WSJ.com/ny is the logical next step.
Almost all newspaper wars are first and foremost about gaining new readers. And while that is certainly a goal of this edition, the real fight is going to be over advertisers.
High-end retailers have long used the Times to reach local readers and Murdoch sensed an opportunity to fight for those kinds of ads. The Times is fighting back with a combination of tooting its own horn (as in this video) and being less than gracious in a memo written by the top Times brass (read it in full here, from the New York Observer).
Today's "Greater New York" section has a full-page Bloomingdale's ad on the back page; inside are ads of various sizes for stores like Macy's (full-page) and Saks (a vertical column). Also in the mix: ads for Gagosian Gallery; First Republic bank; Delta and Cathay Pacific airlines; Broadway's "Jersey Boys" and NYU's continuing ed school ("Plot your own economic recovery this summer"), among others. The web edition features a prominent ad for Bergdorf-Goodman.
Over the last couple of years, as the Times has cut back on its local coverage, a number of blogs and websites, including, of course, DNAinfo.com, have appeared. The Journal's big new local push (including the new edition's 40ish-member staff and multimillion-dollar budget) is yet another sign of what a great news — and advertising — town this is.
This is all part of the current drive of national newspapers here in Manhattan to "go local." We see that with this launch and with the debut last year of Times' "The Local." This drive is a combination of targeting the big-ticket local advertisers and getting bragging rights for owning the media capital of the world.
It's hard to make judgements about a paper — or even a section — after just a few minutes reading it, but I like what I've seen so far of "Greater New York." It's a lively read, covering everything from terrorist plots to the Upper East Side's rat problem (rats infesting the neighborhoods is a story DNAinfo has been all over for months now) to real estate (the terrorist story was the lead item in the paper, but the rats topped the Web version). There's lots of high society coverage including auction houses, the arts and philanthropy ("Donor of the Day" is one feature), along with a look at a $28 million TriBeCa penthouse.
It also has a sense of humor. From Jason Gay's intro to his sports column, part of two pages of sports coverage:
Yes, The Wall Street Journal has a new daily New York sports department. Your joke here. Isn't that like ESPN covering mergers and acquisitions? Are we going to ask Joba Chamberlain for a long-range commodities forecast? Pardon us, Mark Sanchez—will you lateral the Grey Poupon?
Not bad at all for Day One. I'll revisit its progress (and the Times' response, along with that of the Daily News and New York Post) in the months ahead. I look forward to seeing what it does in the world of social media. As I write this, it is silent on Twitter, with @WSJny featuring zero updates (I was the eighth follower).
Also see: Lessons from a Week Without Newspapers
Every Monday, DNAinfo contributing editor Sree Sreenivasan shares his observations about the changing media landscape.
