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WALL STREET JOURNAL
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The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) is an international daily newspaper published by Dow Jones & Company in New York City, New York, USA, with Asian and European editions, and a worldwide daily circulation of more than 2 million as of 2006, with 931,000 paying online subscribers.
It was the largest-circulation newspaper in the United States until November 2003, when it was surpassed by USA Today. Its main rival as a daily financial newspaper is the London-based Financial Times, which also publishes several international editions.
The Journal newspaper primarily covers U.S. and international business and financial news and issues—the paper's name comes from Wall Street, the street in New York City which is the heart of the financial district. It has been printed continuously since being founded July 8, 1889, by Charles Dow, Edward Jones, and Charles Bergstresser. The newspaper has won the Pulitzer Prize thirty-three times, including 2007 prizes for backdated stock options and for the adverse impact of China's booming economy.
Aug 29 2007 - The following were the top stories in The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday. We have not verified these stories and do not vouch for their accuracy.
DAIMLERCHRYSLER SAID profit fell 14% in its first full earnings statement without Chrysler. The company plans to take a smaller-than-expected charge from the sale of the U.S. auto maker to Cerberus.
Stocks are set to rally early Wednesday after the previous session's selloff, with Altria considering a spinoff of its international arm. Markets were mostly higher in Europe and sharply lower in Asia
State Street shares fell on concerns that it could face liabilities from four off-balance-sheet "conduits" it backs and reports that its funds have taken sharp losses.
Fed officials considered taking policy action 10 days before cutting the discount rate, meeting minutes show.
Morning Brief: What the Fed is Watching Economists React: 'Stubborn' Fed Econ Blog: Parallels to the Crisis of 1907 Vote: How would you grade the Fed's approach?
Retail developer NRDC which owns the Lord & Taylor chain, is near a deal to invest in fashion designer Peter Som.
Williams-Sonoma's net fell 27% despite strong sales generated in the West Elm, Williams-Sonoma Home and Pottery Barn brands. The company raised its fiscal-year outlook.
Triarc said it had reached a confidentiality agreement with Wendy's to review financial data in advance of a possible bid.
Gonzales's resignation seems to have stoked the Senate Judiciary Committee's enthusiasm for investigating White House policy.
Eight Iranians including two diplomats, were released by U.S. forces in Iraq after being detained because unauthorized weapons were found in their car.
Bombardier swung to a loss on the writeoff of its investment in Metronet, but the company's planes and trains businesses remained strong. 7:32 a.m
U.S., Canada Place Curbs on Some Jets Bush Says Victory in Iraq is Crucial Sadr Freezes Militia Activities
Milberg Figure Lerach Retires Amid Plea Talks Taliban Free Eight South Korean Hostages Sony Unveils Fall Lineup of LCD TVs Amid Race With Intel, Luxtera Hires Leader Icahn Gets His Way at WCI Communities Ex-Goldman Associate Pleads Guilty Census Report Feeds Health-Care Debate Google Finance Chief to Resign Chrysler Proposes Shedding Noncore Assets
* Shares of institutional money manager State Street Corp (STT.N: Quote, Profile, Research) fell on concerns it could face liabilities from four off-balance sheet "conduit" entities that it backs, and reports that funds it manages have taken sharp losses in the credit-market turmoil. * Ten days before cutting the discount rate, Federal Reserve officials were worried enough about eroding financial conditions to weigh the possibility of taking policy action, according to the minutes of their Aug. 7 meeting. * Stocks tumbled in the last hours of the session Tuesday, ending near their intraday lows, as financial shares continued to deteriorate and investors weighed what the Federal Reserve minutes may signal about the future direction of interest rates. The major indexes all ended down more than 2 percent. * NRDC Equity Partners, the giant retail developer and owner of department-store chain Lord & Taylor, is near a deal to invest in New York fashion designer Peter Som, according to people familiar with the situation. * Medco Health Solutions Inc (MHS.N: Quote, Profile, Research) plans to buy diabetes product supplier PolyMedica Corp (PLMD.O: Quote, Profile, Research) for $1.29 billion to expand beyond prescription-drug intermediaries into the fast-growing business of managing the care of chronic diseases. * Triarc Cos (TRY.N: Quote, Profile, Research) parent of the Arby's chain, said it had reached a confidentiality agreement with Wendy's International Inc (WEN.N: Quote, Profile, Research) to review financial data in order to prepare a possible bid. * The decline in U.S. home prices accelerated in the second quarter as a glut of unsold homes and tighter lending standards continued to weigh on the market. Home prices nationwide tumbled an average 3.2 percent from a year earlier, according to an index compiled by Standard & Poor's Corp. * Citing serious and persistent safety problems with hundreds of older Bombardier Inc jets flown by regional airlines around the world, U.S. and Canadian aviation regulators have slapped unusually tight restrictions on continued operation of the aircraft. * William Lerach, the high-profile plaintiffs' securities lawyer is retiring this week amid a criminal probe involving him. Lerach has been a target of a federal investigation surrounding his former law firm, now called Milberg Weiss LLP.
History
Beginnings
Dow Jones & Company, publisher of the Journal, was founded in 1882 by reporters Charles Dow, Edward Jones and Charles Bergstresser. Jones converted the small Customers' Afternoon Letter into The Wall Street Journal, first published in 1889, and began delivery of the Dow Jones News Service via telegraph. The Journal featured the Jones 'Average', the first of several indexes of stock and bond prices on the New York Stock Exchange.
Journalist Clarence Barron purchased control of the company for US$130,000 in 1902; circulation was then around 7,000 but climbed to 50,000 by the end of the 1920s. Barron and his predecessors were credited with creating an atmosphere of fearless, independent financial reporting -- a novelty in the early days of business journalism.
Barron died in 1928, a year before Black Tuesday, the stock market crash that triggered the Great Depression in the United States. Barron's descendants, the Bancroft family, would continue to control the company until 2007.
Later on, the Woodworths published the paper. Mrs. Teresa "Teddy" Woodworth was a prominent socialite of her day. The Woodworths resided at New York's Sherry-Netherland, sharing the penthouse floor with Cole Porter.
The Journal took its modern shape and prominence in the 1940s, a time of industrial expansion for the United States and its financial institutions in New York. Bernard Kilgore was named managing editor of the paper in 1941, and company CEO in 1945, eventually compiling a 25-year career as the head of the Journal. Kilgore was the architect of the paper's iconic front-page design, with its "What's News" digest, and its national distribution strategy, which brought the paper's circulation from 33,000 in 1941 to 1.1 million at the time of Kilgore's death in 1967. It was also on Kilgore's watch, in 1947, that the paper won its first Pulitzer Prize, for editorial writing.
Its reputation secure as the nation's preeminent business news and conservative opinion newspaper, The Wall Street Journal nevertheless fell on uncertain times in the 1990s, as declining advertising and rising newsprint costs -- contributing to the first-ever annual loss at Dow Jones in 1997 -- raised speculation that the paper might have to drastically change, or be sold.
Internet expansion
Both came to pass. A complement to the print newspaper, The Wall Street Journal Online was launched in 1996. In 2003, Dow Jones began to integrate reporting of the Journal's print and online subscribers together in Audit Bureau of Circulations statements. It is commonly held to be the largest paid-subscription news site on the Web, with 980,000 paid subscribers in mid-2007. As of November 2006, an annual subscription to the online edition of the Wall Street Journal cost $99 for those who do not have subscriptions to the print edition.
The paper's paid content is available free, on a limited basis, to America Online subscribers, and through the free Congoo Netpass. Many Wall Street Journal news stories are available free online through free online newspapers that subscribe to the Dow Jones syndicate. Pulitzer-prize winning stories from 1995 are available free on the Pulitzer web site.
In September 2005, the Journal launched a weekend edition, delivered to all subscribers, which marked a return to Saturday publication after a lapse of some 50 years. The move was designed in part to attract more consumer advertising
In 2005 the Journal reported a readership profile of about 60 percent top management, an average income of $191,000, an average household net worth of $2.1 million, and an average age of 55.
In 2007 the Journal launched a worldwide expansion of its website, to include major foreign-language editions. The paper has also shown an interest in buying the rival Financial Times.
Design changes
In 2006, the Journal began including advertising on its front page for the first time. This followed the introduction of front-page advertising on the Journal's European and Asian editions in late 2005.
After presenting nearly identical front-page layouts for half a century -- always six columns, with an "A-hed" feature story in the first column, "What's News" digest in the second and third, and the day's top stories in three rigid columns on the right side of the page -- the paper in 2007 decreased its broadsheet width from 15 to 12 inches while keeping the length at 22 3/4 inches, in order to save newsprint costs. Dow Jones said it would save US$18 million a year in newsprint costs across all the Wall Street Journal papers. This move resulted in the loss of one column of print, pushing the "A-hed" out of its traditional location (although the paper now usually includes a feature story on the right side of the front page).
The paper still uses ink dot drawings called hedcuts, introduced in 1979,, rather than photographs of people, a practice unique among major newspapers. This method of illustration is a consistent visual signature of the paper and reflects editorial imperatives by allowing these illustrations to be somewhat flattering, and in their consistency, clannish. Nevertheless, the use of color photographs and graphics has become increasingly common in recent years with the addition of more "lifestyle" sections.
News Corp. takeover
On May 2, 2007, Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. made an unsolicited takeover bid for Dow Jones, offering US$60 a share for stock that had been selling for US$33 a share. The Bancroft family, which controls more than 60% of the voting power, at first rejected the offer, but later reconsidered its position.
Three months later, on August 1, 2007, News Corp. and Dow Jones entered into a definitive merger agreement. The controversial US$5 billion sale added The Wall Street Journal to the media tycoon's news empire, which already included Fox News Channel, the New York Post, and London's The Times.
In an editorial page column, publisher L. Gordon Crovitz said the Bancrofts and News Corp. had agreed that the Journal's news and opinion sections would preserve their editorial independence from their new corporate parent:
Mr. Murdoch told the Bancrofts that "any interference -- or even hint of interference -- would break the trust that exists between the paper and its readers, something I am unwilling to countenance." ... Mr. Murdoch and the Bancrofts agreed on standards modeled on the longstanding Dow Jones Code of Conduct.
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