Old and Improved: The Wall Street Journal
Written: Jul 15 '00
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Pros: Superb writers who bring business and finance to life.
Cons: Rabid editorials.
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| Panthera_Leo's Full Review: Wall Street Journal |
The front page of The Wall Street Journal gives the impression that while times have changed, the paper hasn't. The unmistakable look and feel is still there: the famous masthead, triple-decker headlines, and illustrations that look like they came off a super-deluxe Etch-a-Sketch.
Inside, however, the Journal is different, and the changes have been for the better. The economy has created dot.com tycoons and 401(k) millionaires, a huge potential audience for business and financial news. The Journal is working hard to accommodate these readers, adding content dealing with technology, new media, and the Internet. The result is more reading material than ever. From time to time, there are special supplements as well; one, on e-commerce, weighed in at 80 pages.
The Journal is divided into three parts. Section A is devoted to national news, with a substantial amount of political coverage. There are also a few pages of international news, just enough to keep up with major developments overseas. The paper's finest writing can be found in this section. Much it consists of investigative journalism and features rather than hard-core business reporting, but unless your only priority is the bottom line, you'll be rewarded for taking the time to read these stories.
Section B, "Marketplace," contains business news. It's not just regurgitated press releases announcing mergers and management shuffles at stodgy old companies. Advertising and entertainment, for instance, get their fair share of coverage. The writing in this section is also superb. The hallmark of Journal reportage is translating complicated stories and abstract concepts into fresh, lively prose. Other writers can learn from their example.
Section C, "Money and Investing," brings you every U.S. market quote imaginable, and passably good coverage of foreign markets. The stock tables are fine for the average investor, but hard-core traders would be better off using the tables in Investor's Business Daily. Especially worth reading is Jonathan Clements's "Getting Started" series, which explains investing in plain English.
On Friday the Journal also contains a fourth section, "Weekend Journal." It's a far cry from the Financial Times weekend edition or the Sunday New York Times, but parts of it are entertaining. There are reviews of movies, television shows, and even cars. The real estate page keeps tabs on who's buying those celebrity mansions, and "Catalog Critic" tells you what happened when Journal staffers picked up their phones and shopped for merchandise. The most original column in this section, "By the Numbers," provides a statistical look at sports you won't find elsewhere.
Only one thing detracts from the Journal's overall excellence: its editorial page. There you'll find tirades from a motley collection of anti-feminists, let-'em-eat-cake free marketers, and self-appointed social engineers from right-wing think tanks. The editorials themselves are even worse. Robert Bartley, who writes them, believes the solution to America's problems is to return to the Fifties. Take it from someone who's lived through most of that decade. You don't want to go there.
Recommended:
Yes
Describe the newspaper's political views: It is conservative
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Epinions.com ID:
Panthera_Leo
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Member: Paul Ruschmann
Location: Canton, MI
Reviews written: 32
Trusted by: 12 members
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