Wall Street Journal to 'retool' its tabloid editions

Dow Jones and Co Inc plans to "retool" its Wall Street Journal Asian and European newspaper editions after reader complaints about their new tabloid formats, chief executive officer Richard Zannino said today.

Zannino, speaking at the Bank of America Media Telecommunications and Entertainment conference, said some readers feel "there is less of a paper than before" Dow Jones changed from a broad-sheet to the more compact tabloid format. The change, made late last year, was designed to cut costs at the struggling Asian and European editions.

He said readers would likely be more satisfied as they grow accustomed to the tabloid size and realized the editions are offering as much content as they did previously.

Nonetheless, he said, changes were in store, but declined to specify what they would be.

"Readers' reaction overall is positive -- not as positive as some other things we've done, so we are going to correct a little there. Retool it a bit," he said.

"Advertisers have been very happy," he added on the sidelines of the conference.

"Advertising is up in the double digits."

The change to a tabloid format was designed to save US$17 million ($28.55 million) a year starting in 2006.

Zannino said he expected the Wall Street Journal Asian edition to be profitable this year and the European edition to "lose a little bit," although the losses would be less than in prior years.

As for the US edition of the Wall Street Journal, Zannino said he had seen a significant pickup in advertising, pointing to real estate classified advertising, business-to-business and technology and financial.

Zannino, who took over as CEO earlier this year, also said a management reshuffle announced in February was nearly completed.

"It's pretty much in place right now," he said.

"We've eliminated the jobs we said we would eliminate. We have one of two openings but for the most part all of the jobs are filled and up and running.

Dow Jones cut about 20 executive jobs in the reshuffle and changed responsibilities for other top staff, including naming company veteran Gordon Crovitz as publisher of the Wall Street Journal.

- REUTERS