The Wall Street Journal Shrinks Down

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- "All the news that's fi to print." "Now, the
complete skinny." "We reduce. You deride." "The Small Street Journal."

The complete skinny.

Click to see larger image

Those were Slate readers' slogan suggestions for the new-look Wall Street Journal; you can find them at the end of Jack Shafer's piece on the topic. Referring to the Journal's
3-inch downsizing, Shafer opens by noting that, "It's the rare amputee
who describes himself as better off without his two big toes than with
them." He goes on to decide that the Journal's redesign is part of a greater Dow Jones "retreat." In other words, in Shafer's view, the redesign is about cost cutting.

He admits he bases his conclusion on the reporting of The New York Times' Katherine Q. Seelye,
who concludes that the changes "are primarily driven by economics,"
most notably, of course, the $18 million of savings in newsprint and
distribution costs.

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- "All the news that's fi to print." "Now, the complete skinny." "We reduce. You deride." "The Small Street Journal."

Those were Slate readers' slogan suggestions for the new-look Wall Street Journal; you can find them at the end of Jack Shafer's piece on the topic. Referring to the Journal's 3-inch downsizing, Shafer opens by noting that, "It's the rare amputee who describes himself as better off without his two big toes than with them." He goes on to decide that the Journal's redesign is part of a greater Dow Jones "retreat." In other words, in Shafer's view, the redesign is about cost cutting.

He admits he bases his conclusion on the reporting of The New York Times' Katherine Q. Seelye, who concludes that the changes "are primarily driven by economics," most notably, of course, the $18 million of savings in newsprint and distribution costs.