Gawker alleges computer cut-backs for WSJ.com staff

So Boris might give out Blackberries (well, ‘blackberry-type gizmos’) to Olympics spectators in 2012, but over in the States Wall Street Journal journalists are finding that their technology allowance is being cut back.

Or so this ‘internal memo’ on Gawker.com would have us believe. Is it for real? Apparently, all WSJ news staff have been told that a new money-saving measure is in place: ‘at its core is the concept of “one person/one machine.’

“If you are an office-based editor, you’ll get a new desktop. If you are a reporter or editor who travels on assignment, you’ll get a new laptop with a docking station, keyboard and monitor for office use.”

That’s what the alleged internal memo reads. Comments below the Gawker article are sceptical: surely the typos in the memo are a bigger story than the computer cuts, writes ‘drunkexpatworker’.

Hmmm. Authentic or not? It seems an odd kind of prank if not: it wasn’t that funny.

Tags: Gawker, Olympics, Wall Street Journal, WSJ.com

MediaGuardian: Murdoch says online WSJ and Dow Jones subscriptions could go up

Online subscription revenues at the Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones could go up by $300m every year for up to three years, according to Rupert Murdoch. Full story...

Tags: Dow Jones, Online subscription revenues, Rupert Murdoch, Wall Street Journal

Forbes.com opinion channel gets a makeover

Forbes.com/opinions has had a makeover, as of today. Under the control of new opinions channel editor, Tunku Varadarajan, no time has been wasted in having a bit of an autumn clean. Particularly significant is the introduction of an array of high-profile new columnists.

Here’s a run-down of the changes:

• Four main topic categories: Business and Economics, Foreign Affairs and Defence, Culture and Society, and Politics.

• 16 new columnists will be writing weekly columns for the channel, including author Reihan Salam, economists Brian Wesbury and Bob Stein, former Reagan speechwriter Peter Robinson and Quentin Letts (from the UK).

• Book reviews every Monday and Thursday, on all subjects, as well as daily essays and commentaries.

• Forbes.com Editor Paul Maidment’s will produce a weekly video “Notes on the News” about international politics and business.

• Forbes magazine Publisher Rich Karlgaards’s daily blog “Digital Rules” will still run, in addition to a new video blog “Talk Back” about the business world.

Varadarajan was previously contributing editor at the Financial Times, where he wrote opinion pieces, arts and culture essays and book reviews. Before that, he was at the Wall Street Journal for seven years - most recently as Assistant Managing Editor.

He gives fuller run-down of all the changes here.

Tags: Bob Stein, Brian Wesbury, Forbes, Forbes.com, Paul Maidment, Peter Robinson, Quentin Letts, Reihan Salam, Rich Karlgaards, The Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, Tunku Varadarajan, United Kingdom, Wall Street Journal

What’s new in the WSJ.com redesign

The Wall Street Journal set its revamped site live today, so here’s a breakdown of what’s changed and what’s new:

New

• Journal Community - a social networking feature for the site’s paying subscribers, which lets them comment on articles, ‘ask the expert’ and join topic-based networks and discussion groups
  
• Subscriber-only sections marked with a key icon and available for preview by non-subscribers
• Newsreel - a scrolling, horizontal panel topping article pages, which links to other top stories. (Seems to be on most US stories at the moment, as shown in the picture below)
• New video player and slideshow viewer
• A new WSJ.com mobile reader for the Blackberry
• New management section - available to subscribers only
  

Changes

• Expanded content across its What’s News, Heard on the Street, small business, technology, US and world news, politics, personal finance and lifestyle sections
• Improved navigation - including horizontal menu bar across all pages
• Redesigned article pages to support more multimedia content and provide ‘related analysis’

Paying subscribers to the site, which WSJ claims have risen to more than 1 million, will also have increased access to the site’s archive.

Tags: personal finance, social networking feature, Wall Street Journal

NYTimes.com: New WSJ.com uses its community of subscribers

The Wall Street Journal will activate a revamped version of its website tomorrow, but the existing wall that blocks non-subscribers from reading most of the site's business news articles will remain. Full story...

Tags: Wall Street Journal

The Inquisitr: ‘Arrington on journalism is like Britney Spears on parenting’, says Swisher

At this week's Demo Conference renowned Wall Street Journal technology columnist Kara Swisher attacked Tech Crunch's founder Michael Arrington: 'being lectured in journalism ethics by Michael Arrington is like getting parenting tips from Britney Spears'. Full story...

Tags: Britney Spears, Kara Swisher, Michael Arrington, Tech Crunch, Wall Street Journal

International Herald Tribune: Wall Street Journal website redesign

This Saturday's Wall Street Journal will see the first issue of a new glossy magazine, one part of their development project, which also includes the relaunch of the Journal's WSJ.com website on September 16. Full story...

Tags: Wall Street Journal

Guardian material on paidContent:UK

As a result of Guardian News & Media’s acquisition of ContentNext, Media Guardian content has started to appear on paidContent:UK. Just recently the same occured vice versa: the appearance of Paid Content articles on the Media Guardian site.

In July, Journalism.co.uk reported that Guardian News & Media had bought ContentNext, behind paidcontent.org, paidContent:UK and the Indian news site contentSutra.com.

An early report by the Wall Street Journal’s AllThingsD column reported that according to sources it was a figure ‘north of $30 million.’

The deal marked a ’significant expansion’ of GNM’s US presence, a press statement said at the time.

Tags: ContentNext, Guardian News & Media, Journalism.co.uk, news site, paid content, The Wall Street Journal, United Kingdom, United States, USD, Wall Street Journal

Amazon Kindle adds Financial Times and Times

The Financial Times and the Times are now available as e-newspapers on Amazon’s Kindle.

The partnership means electronic and automatically updated editions of the papers will now be accessible via the Kindle.

Editions of the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Le Monde and the Irish Times are also available on the device.

Earlier this year the US Tribune Co. launched a magazine specially designed for the e-reader.

Tags: Amazon, e-newspapers, e-reader, Irish Times, Kindle, Le Monde, The Financial Times, the New York Times, The Times, US Tribune Co., Wall Street Journal

Press Gazette: Subscriptions to WSJ.com rise by 88 per cent

Subscriptions to the Wall Street Journal's pay-for website have risen 88 per cent over the last year, according to News Corporation's end of year results. Total profit for the company is up from £1.7 billion to £2.7 billion. Full story...

Tags: News Corporation, Wall Street Journal