''WSJ Magazine'' (styled on the cover art as WSJ., in upright characters with a dot at the end) is a luxury glossy news and lifestyle monthly magazine published by ''
The Wall Street Journal
''The Wall Street Journal'' (''WSJ''), also referred to simply as the ''Journal,'' is an American newspaper based in New York City. The newspaper provides extensive coverage of news, especially business and finance. It operates on a subscriptio ...
''.
[ It features luxury consumer products advertisements and is distributed to subscribers in large United States markets.][ Its coverage spans art, fashion, entertainment, design, food, architecture, travel and more. Kristina O'Neill was Editor in Chief from October 2012 to 2023. Sarah Ball, previously Style News Editor, became Editor in Chief in June 2023. Launched as a quarterly in 2008, the magazine grew to 12 issues a year for 2014. It was originally intended to be a monthly magazine named ''Pursuits''.]
The magazine is distributed within the U.S. Weekend Edition of The Wall Street Journal newspaper (paid print circulation for the Weekend edition is approximately 2.2 million), and is available on WSJ.com. Each issue is also available throughout the month in ''The Wall Street Journals iPad app. It was also inserted with the Europe
Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...
and Asia
Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...
editions until those were discontinued in 2017.
With its tagline "The Luxury of Choice",[ the magazine began operations with an advertising business model that allowed for free delivery to select readers. It followed a trend of contemporaneous new luxury magazines many of which were also delivered as part of free subscriptions that supplemented other subscriptions or memberships.][ Since it was leveraging a high-end subset of ''The Wall Street Journal'' with favorable demographics, many expected the magazine to be successful.][
]
Initial release
The magazine was originally sent as an insert with September 6, 2008, weekend home delivery in the seventeen largest United States ''The Wall Street Journal'' subscription markets as well as the September 5 editions of '' The Wall Street Journal Europe'' and '' The Wall Street Journal Asia''.[ By selecting these markets, it began with a readership of 960,000 (800,000 domestic).] The magazine is also available with newsstand
A newsagent's shop or simply newsagent's or paper shop (British English), newsagency (Australian English) or newsstand (American English, American and Canadian English) is a business that sells newspapers, magazines, cigarettes, snacks and oft ...
purchases of the newspaper in the selected domestic markets, and its content is available for free online at www.wsj.com.[ This readership has greater wealth (average household assets of ]US$
The United States dollar (Currency symbol, symbol: Dollar sign, $; ISO 4217, currency code: USD) is the official currency of the United States and International use of the U.S. dollar, several other countries. The Coinage Act of 1792 introdu ...
2.9 million), higher income ($265,000 per-household income), and takes more than twice as many international leisure trips than the readership of the newspaper.[ The readership of the newspaper spent more on women's ]apparel
Clothing (also known as clothes, garments, dress, apparel, or attire) is any item worn on a human human body, body. Typically, clothing is made of fabrics or textiles, but over time it has included garments made from animal skin and other thin s ...
than the readers of '' Vogue'' and more on leisure travel than the readers of ''Travel & Leisure
''Travel + Leisure'' is a travel magazine based in New York City, New York (state), New York. Published 12 times a year, it has 4.8 million readers, according to its corporate media kit. It is published by Dotdash Meredith, a subsidiary of IAC ( ...
''. The launch press release was sent out in English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Simplified Chinese, and Traditional Chinese. The September 6 debut had been announced about a year earlier.
The magazine was officially unveiled at the Pierpont Morgan Library
The Morgan Library & Museum (originally known as the Pierpont Morgan Library and colloquially known the Morgan) is a museum and research library in New York City, New York, U.S. Completed in 1906 as the private library of the banker J. P. Morg ...
on September 3, 2008. The unveiling was led by Ellen Asmodeo-Giglio, its publisher; Michael Rooney, Dow Jones chief revenue officer; Tina Gaudoin, ''WSJ Magazine'' editor in chief (and former launch editor of '' The Times of Londons quarterly magazine '' Luxx'');[ and Robert J. Thomson, managing editor of ''The Wall Street Journal''.][ It has been compared to '' How To Spend It'', the weekend magazine of the '']Financial Times
The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and also published digitally that focuses on business and economic Current affairs (news format), current affairs. Based in London, the paper is owned by a Jap ...
'', ''T magazine'', a ''New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' offshoot, ''Style & Design'', a spinoff of ''Time
Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...
'', and ''Departures'', a magazine distributed for free to American Express
American Express Company or Amex is an American bank holding company and multinational financial services corporation that specializes in payment card industry, payment cards. It is headquartered at 200 Vesey Street, also known as American Expr ...
platinum and black cardholders. Gaudoin had also previously worked for ''Tatler
''Tatler'' (stylised in all caps) is a British magazine published by Condé Nast Publications. It focuses on fashion and lifestyle, as well as coverage of high society and politics. It is targeted towards the British upper and upper-middle c ...
'', ''Harper's Bazaar
''Harper's Bazaar'' (stylized as ''Harper's BAZAAR'') is an American monthly women's fashion magazine. Bazaar has been published in New York City since November 2, 1867, originally as a weekly publication entitled ''Harper's Bazar''."Corporat ...
'' and '' Vogue'' and helped to launch the women's magazine Frank.[
]
Strategy
In 2008, luxury magazines had become the new wave of print media. These aforementioned similar magazines have generally succeeded at both giving free luxury magazine subscriptions to a selected elite audience and hoping that they would read them so that the magazine could sell advertising.[ This magazine is considered to be a similar bet on the viability for the luxury advertising revenues market.][ Nearly half of the advertiser bought globally in the United States, Europe and Asia and many advertisers committed to advertising deals for all of next year.] Some advertisers committed for two years.[
''The Wall Street Journal'' launched its weekend newspaper edition, which its publisher, ]Dow Jones & Company
Dow Jones & Company, Inc. (also known simply as Dow Jones) is an American publishing firm owned by News Corp, and led by CEO Almar Latour. The company publishes ''The Wall Street Journal'', '' Barron's'', '' MarketWatch'', ''Mansion Global'' ...
, described as the first and only Saturday morning national weekend newspaper, on September 17, 2005. When the weekend newspaper was launched, it had the highest circulation of any national newspaper published on Saturday. Prior to the launch of the weekend edition, ''The Wall Street Journal'' had commonly only been delivered to business addresses. With the home delivery aspect of the weekend edition, the possibility of supplemental weekend luxury magazine arose.[ The original name ''Pursuits'' had been widely publicized as a section of the newly launched weekend edition of the magazine.][
]
Expanded launch
In December 2009, ''WSJ Magazine'' announced plans to expand domestic circulation beyond the 17 largest domestic markets to the entire domestic subscription base, which nearly doubled its domestic circulation from 800,000 to 1.5 million. In addition the frequency of distribution was expanded from 4 to 6 times per year. In order to increase the frequency a May and an October edition were added to the March, June, September and December 2010 distribution schedule. At the time of the expansion, the magazine claimed its first fifteen months of its first six issues had been a success during which the magazine attracted 64 new subscribers to the Journal's franchise. Deborah Needleman
Deborah Needleman is an American editor and writer. She was editor-in-chief of '' T: The New York Times Style Magazine'' and '' WSJ..'' She was also the creator of the paper's weekend lifestyle section and the founding editor-in-chief of ''Domino ...
replaced Tina Gaudoin in 2010. After Needleman left for
'' T'' in 2012, she was replaced by Kristina O'Neill. In 2012, 2013 and 2014, the magazine increased its publication frequency to 10, 11 and 12 times per year, respectively. When ''Pursuits'' was initially marketed, the plan was for it to be a monthly magazine.[
]
Design and layout
The magazine is oversized to be as large as would fit within the fold of ''The Wall Street Journal''.[ Its specs are trim size and a 50-50 ad-to-edit ratio on a paper stock.][ The premiere issue had 104 pages in the U.S. and 80 pages in the Europe and Asia editions. It included 51 advertisers of which 19 are new to The Wall Street Journal franchise.][ The initial cover featured Diana Dondoe in a dress fabricated from ''The Wall Street Journal'' ]newsprint
Newsprint is a low-cost, non-archival paper consisting mainly of wood pulp and most commonly used to print newspapers and other publications and advertising material. Invented in 1844 by Charles Fenerty of Nova Scotia, Canada, it usually has ...
design, which the ''New York Observer
New or NEW may refer to:
Music
* New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz
* ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013
** "New" (Paul McCartney song), 2013
* ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, 1995
* "New" (Daya song), 2017
* "New" (No Doubt song), 1 ...
'' feels is a tip of the hat to a controversy noted in ''The New York Times'' about a poverty chic photo spread in the India edition of the August 2008 ''Vogue''.[
]
Critical review
Some media experts consider that pursuit of luxury retail advertising an effective strategy,[ but whether the magazine becomes a success is an open issue.][ Immediate speculation commented on the likelihood for success given the ]demographics
Demography () is the statistical study of human populations: their size, composition (e.g., ethnic group, age), and how they change through the interplay of fertility (births), mortality (deaths), and migration.
Demographic analysis examin ...
of the initial subscription base.[ Others ascribed their great expectations to the brand.] Some skeptics claim that since Journal readers are financial information seekers giving them a free magazine of luxury ads may be a waste of time.[ Others note the magazine's launch despite a market with declining advertising and a world economy suffering from the ]2008 financial crisis
The 2008 financial crisis, also known as the global financial crisis (GFC), was a major worldwide financial crisis centered in the United States. The causes of the 2008 crisis included excessive speculation on housing values by both homeowners ...
.[ Some advertisers expressed appreciation for an opportunity to present to ''The Wall Street Journals readers in a different format.][
The content is slightly less focussed on consumption than ''How To Spend It''.][ Gaudoin stated her intention was to make a publication that was less about how to spend it and more about "how to live it."][ She also intends to differentiate her magazine via wit and irreverence in order to make ''WSJ.'' less urban and less gritty" than ''T''.][ The magazine claims to have planned to feature ]Sarah Palin
Sarah Louise Palin (; Heath; born February 11, 1964) is an American politician, commentator, and author who served as the ninth governor of Alaska from 2006 until her resignation in 2009. She was the 2008 Republican vice presidential nomi ...
in its inaugural issue even before she became John McCain
John Sidney McCain III (August 29, 1936 – August 25, 2018) was an American statesman and United States Navy, naval officer who represented the Arizona, state of Arizona in United States Congress, Congress for over 35 years, first as ...
's running mate in the 2008 United States presidential election
Presidential elections were held in the United States on November 4, 2008. The Democratic ticket of Barack Obama, the junior senator from Illinois, and Joe Biden, the senior senator from Delaware, defeated the Republican ticket of John Mc ...
.[
In 2013, '' Adweek'' named ''WSJ Magazine'' the "Hottest Lifestyle Magazine of the Year" in its annual Hot List. The November 2013 cover featuring Gisele Bundchen and ]Daft Punk
Daft Punk were a French electronic music duo formed in 1993 in Paris by Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo. They achieved popularity in the late 1990s as part of the French house movement, combining house music, funk, disco, tech ...
won the Clio Award
The Clio Awards, also simply known as The Clios, is an annual award program that recognizes innovation and creative excellence in advertising, design, and communication, as judged by an international panel of advertising professionals. The awar ...
for Top Magazine cover of the year.
References
External links
Official website
{{good article
Lifestyle magazines published in the United States
Monthly magazines published in the United States
News magazines published in the United States
Quarterly magazines published in the United States
Dow Jones & Company
Magazines established in 2008
Newspaper supplements
News Corporation subsidiaries
The Wall Street Journal
Magazines published in New York City