The Wall Street Journal’s ‘Greater New York’ Gets Mixed Reviews

About a year ago The Wall Street Journal launched its “Greater New York” section as a way to compete for local readers and ad dollars with The New York Times. According to Ad Age it’s failing at the former, but succeeding at the latter.

The paper’s circulation is actually down 3.5 percent since the section debuted, but ad sales have – at least according to the Journal’s Chief Revenue Officer Michael Rooney – increased “100 percent.” He tells Ad Age that new local advertisers continue to approach the paper about space in the section.

There was no data about how many readers have subscribed online since Greater New York debuted, so it’s possible that the decline in readership – which was already happening anyway – is the result of more people reading the paper on tablets or smartphones.

The results for Greater New York at year one could be better, but they could also be worse. The Journal is obviously looking on the bright side of things; we can assume that the Times is looking at something completely different.

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