If you're not reading the Journal, you're not informed
Written: Jun 26 '01 (Updated Jul 07 '07)
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Pros: The nation's source for finance news and conservative daily opinion
Cons: None. This is essential reading.
The Bottom Line: The WSJ is mandatory reading for anyone who aspires to having ANY kind of pretensions as to being described as "informed." Business people cannot survive without it.
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| buffoonery's Full Review: Wall Street Journal |
OK, that's a bit of an exaggeration. But it's pretty close to the truth. There's really no excuse for not reading this newspaper.
The Wall Street Journal is a daily newspaper published by Dow Jones, Inc. (yes, that Dow Jones). The paper comes in three sections, which I'll look at individually.
The first section is general business and economic news with a good seasoning of political developments. The front page has six columns. Two of them have short blurbs on business/finance and world wide political developments, often with references to more detail inside. One changes from day to day with blurbs exclusively on tax, labor, etc. issues. The other three columns are lengthy features of general interest, often enough being very important investigative reporting or examinations of key figures, and equally many whimsical articles on the arts, letters, or just weirdos.
Inside, pages 2 and 3 cover the most important business issues of the day. Here, you'll find what's going on with key economic indicators, major M&A deals, legal developments, etc. This is very important stuff. Business articles of lesser importance, say on earnings releases, etc. are within.
Section A also include a strong section on international news, a "Leisure and Arts" page that has one book review and two other articles on theatre, music, etc.
Section A closes with the Journal's famous (or infamous) editiorial and op ed page. The Journal is one of the few dailies that is reliably conservative in its politics: steadfastly free market (with some exceptions), Republican, pro-defense, anti-communist, pro-life (a true shocker, there), the whole nine yards. Most of the opinion columns are the same. If you're liberal, you may want to skip this, and just read the business news.
However, to give the devil its due, the WSJ consistently published opinion pieces by very well known liberals, including Ralph Nader, Alan Dershowitz, the late Prof. Robert Eisner, and host of others. It gives the left a lot more coverage than the New York Times gives the right, that's for sure. The Journal is also a lot better at publishing letters from offended liberals than the New York Times is at publishing letters from offended conservatives.
Moving along, Section B is "Marketplace", containing diverse articles about developments in marketing, advertising, real estate, law, etc. This is mostly lighter stuff, still important, and well written as always.
Section C is "Money & Investing". Important columns including the famous daily "Heard on the Street" piece as well as market summaries, deals, etc. The rest of the section is key business and stock market data the covers the gamut, and I mean pages and pages and pages of dividends reports, FX rates, bonds, stocks, blah blah blah. It's really something.
On Fridays, the Journal publishes a great, separate entertainment section called "Pursuits" that covers movies, novels, wine, real estate, religion, etc. It occasionally publishes a separate fourth section on technology, mutual funds, ecommerce, etc. Joe Morgenstern's movie reviews are terrific and also can be quite amusing.
The Journal is now also published on Saturdays in three sections, news/business/features.
Getting beyond the articles, the writing is of top caliber, easily as good as the New York Times political reporting. More than that, the business writers REALLY know there stuff. A lot of them are MBA's and such, so they actually know very technical stuff like the CAPM and whatnot, unlike the amateurs in my local daily (the Chicago Tribune), who are really just a bunch of poseurs.
But, stripped to its essentials, the Journal really brings two things to the table: unsurpassed business/finance coverage, and a strong conservative bent that unfortunately does not offset the NYT, Post, Time, major networks, etc. But it's better than nothing.
Anyway, bottom line and regardless of politics, the Journal is absolutely essential reading for business, legal, and other professionals. Combined with the political reporting of the NYT (if you just hold your nose), and the weekly Economist, you can feel safe in knowing that you have a good handle as to what is going on in the world.
buffoonery’s magazine and newspaper reviews:
Wall Street Journal
Commentary
The Economist
National Review
The Nation
Chicago Tribune
Chicago Sun-Times
First Things
The American Spectator
The New Republic
Guitar World
Guitar World Acoustic
Guitar One
Guitar Player
Recommended:
Yes
Describe the newspaper's political views: It is conservative
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