Spend your summer at the WSJ

The Wall Street Journal is looking for 18 journalism students for its summer internship program.
The interns will dive into business and information reporting for 10 weeks from June to Aug. at one of the Journal's many bureaus throughout the country, helping the WSJ's audience better understand business life. Interns will receive a pay of $700 per week.
Candidates must be undergraduate or graduate students. Most selected applicants have typically had previous newspaper internships and been heavily involved in their college's newspaper. An applicant's clips and previous journalism experience will have major impact on his or her acceptance. Journalists selected for final consideration will be asked to attend an interview.
To apply, mail your cover letter, resume and at least a dozen of clips (photocopied on letter or legal-size paper and unbound) to:

Cathy Panagoulias
Assistant Managing Editor
The Wall Street Journal
200 Liberty Street
New York, NY 10281

Applications must be received by Nov. 1 of this year. All candidates will be notified of the newspaper's intern selection by the end of February.

Learn more about the internship here.

IMAGE CREDIT: online.wsj.com

Business Rules: 10 best Web sites

Imitation is the best form of flattery.
And here's my latest study guide.

Media Business's
10 great media Web sites

Business is all over this list. Here are some of the reasons why:

BusinessWeek.com: Interactivity.

The Wall Street Journal's WSJ.com: Top-to-bottom rebuild.

PC World: Increased product reviews.

Financial Times: Charging for online content.

As they say in their overview:

Media Business issued a call for nominations in the June 8 issue, weekly e-newsletter and the American Business Media Group on LinkedIn. Business media companies put forward more than two dozen Web sites for review in the following categories: IT, trade (non-IT), general business, launch, relaunch, paid subscription, portal, video/multimedia and Web 2.0, which was divided into IT and non-IT categories.

Reminder to all: You can't win it, if you aren't in it.

Jumping in to localize the Whole Foods story

Executive crusades can be risky and distracting. That's certainly no surprise to Whole Foods CEO and founder John Mackey.

Investors, unions and customers have all expressed ire at the political views he expressed in The Wall Street Journal on Aug. 11.

Mackey presented a free market alternative to Obama's health-care reforms, adding that Americans do not have an intrinsic right to health care, an idea at odds with the company's well-heeled liberal clientele. (One question I haven't seen explored yet is whether Mackey is happy to make a shift to a more mainstream customer base.)

Stakeholders across the board are questioning whether Mackey is the right man to run the company, which ironically has a reputation for being a progressive company that treats its employees well.

And reporters are scrambling to find ways to localize the story as it moves from Wall Street's concerns to Main Street protests.

Protests in New York:
Single-Payer Health Care Advocates Picket Whole Foods

Investors chime in:
Motley Fool: Should Whole Foods bag its CEO?

Unions vote no confidence:
Unions join Whole Foods boycott

Damaging the image:
Brand Image: Did Mackey Really Hurt Whole Foods? (WFMI)

Investors want CEO out:
CtW Investment Group Calls for Whole Foods Board to Remove Chair and CEO John Mackey

Don't forget, reporters can get a lot of great information from other reports, but if you're going to try to localize an ongoing story, be careful about jumping in late in the game. Go back to the source. Do your own reporting.

The op-ed that started all this:
John Mackey: The Whole Foods Alternative to ObamaCare

You probably don't want to wait until the company's Whole Story chimes in.

Journalists can build a brand like a rock star

Sure they can!

In the top story on BusinessWeek's Management page this afternoon, Dan Schawbel writes about how anyone with an Internet connection and some ambition can develop their own marketing platform.

Schawbel points to the results of a study conducted on July 20 by Wetpaint and the Altimeter Group which shows that the most engaged brands on social media saw their revenue grow by 18%.

His examples are celebrity brands: Kathy Ireland, MC Hammer, Gary Vaynerchuk. All of them quickly saw impact on their brands after using Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and video blogs.

Journalists can do the same thing. Of course, revenue is counted not by sales but by loyalty, readers, viewers, story tips and, perhaps, longevity in the business.

• New York Times' Brian Stelter has 11,750 followers on Twitter.
• All Things Digital's Kara Swisher has 116,000 followers and drives a lot of traffic to her All Things Digital blog, which is part of The Wall Street Journal Digital Network.
• Michael Banovsky, who covers the auto industry in Toronto, has nearly 4,000 followers.
• And Miami Herald tech reporter Bridget Carey has 1,800 followers.

All are respectable business journalists, but none are household names. They would not expect to attract followers in the numbers that Oprah or Ellen or Ashton would.

But they are just four of hundreds of business journalists using social media to develop their brands and to reach an audience they may not have had before.

Whether you are a freelancer or get a regular paycheck, you are your brand. And you can always take lessons from the stars. It's Hammer time.

Dow Jones needs an editor and journalists

The Wall Street Journal Online is looking for an editor to lead a new business-focused Web site. Dow Jones says the position is "a rare opportunity to help shape a new site that will break ground in the paid-content arena". The editor will lead a team of editors and create comprehensive coverage through multimedia. They will also meet with technology, product development, business development and marketing teams to make the new site.
Applicants should have a strong understanding of business along with 10 years' experience in journalism with at least three to five of those years spent in digital operations. They should also be knowledgeable in content-management systems, taxonomy and metadata design and the product-development process.

Dow Jones is also looking for journalists. A reporter to cover aerospace companies is wanted in California who has five years' experience at a daily newspaper. The company is also looking for a reporter in New York to cover the oil market for its newswire.

Learn more about the position and apply online here.

Gannett to cut more than 1,000 jobs

The Wall Street Journal reports that Gannett Co. will cut between 1,000 and 2,000 jobs from its work force.
WSJ sites a person "familiar with the company's thinking" with the information.

According to the article, cuts will come from the U.S. Community Publishing division, which includes Gannett's local dailies. But cuts won't impact USA Today.
The move, would follow cost-cutting efforts by Gannett over the past year when the publisher cut 4,600 jobs last year and then required most remaining employees to take furloughs in the first and second quarters.
Gannett, which reports second-quarter earnings in mid-July, had $3.7 billion in debt at the end of the first quarter.

View the story here.

Track the money trail from MJ's death

TheStreet.com follows the money trail for media from yesterday's unexpected news that reigning King of Pop, Michael Jackson died at the age of 50 in a video report released today.
While many news sources such as the Wall Street Journal reported that an overflow of online activity for sites like Twitter and other online news sources, the increase in traffic does not necessarily mean that those Web sites saw a jump in dollars from yesterday's increase in activity.

TheStreet.com's Alix Steel & Bill McCandless take a look at what impact Michael Jackson's sudden death had on media sites and if it actually increased advertising revenue dollars.

"Follow the Money" here.

Gannett CEO takes medical leave

Gannett Inc. (GCI), Chief Executive Officer Craig Dubow will take an extended medical leave for a second round of back surgery, the Wall Street Journal reports.
According to Gannett spokeswoman Tara Connell, Dubow will likely be out for four months to address his persistent back problem.

However, she did say that he could return to work sooner than expected.
View the article here.

WSJ appoints biz journalist as Europe editor

The Wall Street Journal has selected financial journalist, Patience Wheatcroft as editor-in-chief of its European operations, SmartMoney reports.

Based in London, Wheatcraft will head up a global growth push for mainly digital content.

Wheatcraft resigned as a Barclays PLC (BCS) director to take on the position at the Wall Street Journal.
Prior to her post at Barclays, she was editor of the U.K.'s Sunday Telegraph from 2006 to 2007 and prior to that served as business and city editor of The Times for nearly a decade.

View the full story here.

Unforeseen Consequence

Today, The Wall Street Journal ran an online story discussing an unforeseen consequence of the auto-crisis and recession in Detroit.
While it was widely predicted Detroit's residents and businesses would suffer from the collapse of General Motors Corporation, few imagined the rate businesses would exodus from the city.
Retailers like Starbucks and Borders have pulled most of their locations from the city. The United Food and Commercial Workers union is thinking of building a grocery store due to a lack of national grocery chains and businesses selling fresh meat and produce. Residents of the city are struggling to get common goods readily available to them a few months ago. Car dealers have also started trekking from the 11th largest city in the nation. From the story:

"The lack of retail is one of the biggest challenges the city faces," said James Bieri, president of Bieri Co., a Detroit-based real-estate brokerage. "Trying to understand how to get it to come back will be one of the most important keys to its resurgence - if it ever has one."

Andrew Grossman's article strays from the collapse of GM and examines the extent the corporation's influence kept other businesses rooted. The story also acts as an interesting allegory of one corporation's ability to bring one of the largest cities in America to its knees.

View the story here.

What do you think of the backlash from General Motors in Detroit? What unforseen consequences of the auto industry crisis have you reported on? Comment and let us know.

Murdoch foresees paperless future for WSJ, all newspapers

Media mogul and News Corp. chief executive officer Rupert Murdoch said Monday in an interview with FOX Business’s Neil Cavuto The Wall Street Journal could be paperless in 20 years.
Murdoch said he believes almost all news will be delivered either digitally via computer or on portable devices like Amazon's Kindle within 10 years.
While the newspaper industry is currently struggling to change its business model, Murdoch said he believes newspapers will endure. From the story:

“My feeling is that we hopefully hit a bottom here where things will be pretty stable from now on. Not as good as they were a little while back. It’s going to take time to climb out of it. That’s okay,”

View the story here.

What do you think of Murdoch's predictions and a potentially paperless WSJ? Tell us in a comment.

When business and free speech collide

The Wall Street Journal was the first to report on China's recent mandate requiring all new computers sold in the country to contain filters restricting citizens from viewing pornography and other online content it deems harmful.
China has long been notorious for its online censorship, using it to quash movements it opposes (like the freedom of Tibet) and obscure the darker parts of its history (like the Tienanmen Square massacre).
The New York Times wrote an article mentioning the impact this regulation will have on American computer companies including Dell, Lenovo and Hewlett-Packard. While the story explains that companies are still examining the regulation, the anonymous industry executives it quotes seem more concerned with how it will set back production than how it will curtail the liberties of others. Says one executive on the regulation:

“The wording may be intentionally vague but the message is clear: we have no choice in the matter,”

This seems to be a popular view of many technology companies working in China. Yahoo helped Chinese Internet police arrest a dissident Internet journalist in 2007 and Google has helped China censor its searches for years now.
While business journalists have examined the moral implications of these companies' business decisions, it still feels that many are pulling punches. Cooperation with China's censorship flies directly in the face of many of these companies' purported goals and self-sculpted images. Journalists shouldn't hesitate to pounce on that hypocrisy.
As a whole, business journalists should call businesses on it when their products do harm to those they're supposed to serve. It not only helps the journalist and their readership, but the companies in bettering themselves.
Business journalism should never forget to emphasize what companies sometimes forget; in the end, there is always a choice.
View the article here.

What do you think about the current accountability of companies aiding in China's censorship? Comment and let us know.

Last day to ask your questions

Today marks the last day that you can submit questions to John M. Geddes, managing editor of the New York Times.

Prior to working for the Times, Geddes has held posts at BIS Strategic Decisions, The Wall Street Journal and the A.P.-Dow Jones News Service.

Email your questions to askthetimes@nytimes.com.

Click here for more information.

Biz Journalist wins Livingston Award

Wall Street Journal business reporter, Kate Kelly, is one of three winners of the $10,000 Livingston Awards for Young Journalists for 2008 work.

Kelly won the award in the national reporting category for "Lost Opportunities Haunt Final Days of Bear Stearns," her three-part series on the collapse of the Bear Stearns company.

The Livingston Awards are limited to journalists under the age of 35 and are awarded in local, national, and international reporting. 

The 50 finalists for this year's competition were widdled down to three and winners were announced today by Charles Gibson of ABC News, Ken Auletta of The New Yorker and Anna Quindlen of Newsweek today.

View the winners list here.

Daniel Hertzberg leaves WSJ after 32 years

According to Editor & Publisher, The Wall Street Journal's deputy managing editor Daniel Hertzberg is leaving the news organization June 30 after 32 years at the paper. In an email to the newsroom, Hertzberg expressed gratitude for his time at WSJ:

As a reporter and later an editor, I have been lucky enough to participate in the growth of one of the world’s finest journalistic institutions, which values breaking news, lucid analysis and top-notch investigative and narrative journalism, delivered with fairness and balance.

A replacement for Hertzberg has yet to be named.
View the story here.

GM bankruptcy-what does it mean for me?

The Wall Street Journal has written an essential piece summing up how General Motor Corp.'s application for Chapter 11 will impact new-car deals, resale value, warranties, service and other car makers.
Summing up the Chapter 11 repercussions on businesses and individuals in layman's terms is the only way to address that ever-important question: What does it mean for me?
View the story here.

GM chairman to resign, five GM directors to keep seats

General Motors Corp. Chairman Rick Wagoner is being forced to resign, according to The New York Times.
Five of G.M.'s 12 directors will keep their seats, according to The Wall Street Journal.
View the story here.
For a great overview of G.M., click here.

Need other information or resources? Comment on The Pulse and we will help get it for you.

GM plant closures

The Wall Street Journal has a short, straightforward story on the 17 factories and part centers General Motors Corp. will be closing as part of its Chapter 11. The story lists the plants by their town and state locations. WSJ states that G.M. plans to cut roughly 20,000 factory jobs (more than 1/3 of G.M.'s U.S. workforce).
According to the story, 3 plants may "reopen if market demand rebounds." The story also mentions G.M.'s plans to convert a factory currently unused into a place to construct small cars.
View the story here.

Photos for the win

If one thing's for certain, business stories tend to be text-heavy and photo-light. When photos do accompany business articles, they're often of executives sitting stiffly at their desks, products sitting limply on a table, or just an outside shot of a business.
That's why I find the slideshow accompanying The Wall Street Journal's "Wal-Mart Exports Big-Box Concept to India" refreshing.
Eric Bellmen doesn't just take a picture of Mike Duke or the store being constructed. He goes a step farther, taking pictures of the people running India's small retailers soon to be impacted by Wal-Mart in a big way.
Bellmen's slideshow takes Wal-Mart's abstract business decision and makes it concrete, clearly showing the human impact of the business news. Photography is the ideal medium for reporters to incorporate more of the humanity within business news into their stories.
Learning to think outside traditional business photojournalism to create greater context and human interest within business stories is essential for all 21st century journalists to master.
View the slide show here.

Done some great business journalism photography? Comment and tell us about it.

Bling takes a hit in a down economy

A story in today's The Wall Street Journal offers an interesting look at another area touched by the down economy - "bling."
Rappers and other jewelry lovers are now finding it more difficult to afford their shiny pieces. To compensate, alternative jewelry with less precious stones, like cubic zirconia, are instead being considered for "bling."
And, as the story points out, jewelers also have to adapt.
From the story:

"A lot of these rappers simply don't have the money for real stuff anymore," says Jason Arasheben, who crafts custom jewelry for wealthy clientele, including Saudi royals and Hollywood movie stars, at his California boutique called Jason of Beverly Hills. "It's to the point where they are wearing imitation jewelry, and that's ridiculous."

WSJ investigative reporter dies at 54

John Wilke, an investigative reporter for The Wall Street Journal, died of pancreatic cancer on Friday at age 54, according to reports from the Examiner.
Wilke began his career at BusinessWeek in 1984 and then covered technology and business for the Boston Globe. He has worked at The Journal since 1989.
From the story:

In recent years, his investigation of earmark deals cut by members of Congress for friends or supporters led to last year's indictment of then Rep. Rick Renzi, R-Ariz. Another story revealed the way Democratic Rep. John Murtha used earmarks to bring federal contracts to his Pennsylvania district.

Wilke's stories also included a 2005 expose on mutual-fund trader Mario Gabelli, who settled civil fraud claims for about $100 million six months after the story appeared. In 2000, Wilke scored an extraordinary interview with U.S. District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson...

To read more about Wilke check out this story from The Wall Street Journal.

Circulation decline speeding up

Figures released by the Audit Bureau of Circulations show that newspaper circulation for the six months ending March 31 fell 7.1 percent, according to The New York Times.
That's an increase from the 4.3 percent and 3.6 percent drops over the previous two six-month periods.

Of the top 25 newspapers in the United States, all posted declines in circulation except for The Wall Street Journal, which eked out a 0.6 percent gain, according to figures released by the Audit Bureau of Circulations. For the others, the declines ranged from 20.6 percent for The New York Post, to a slight 0.4 percent drop for The Chicago Sun-Times.

The Audit Bureau also showed, however, that the number of unique visitors to newspaper websites is still increasing.
The sites combined to draw 73 million unique visitors per month in the first quarter of 2009, a year-over-year increase of 10.5 percent.
Click here to read more.

WSJ interactive map: "Pressure on the Presses"

The Wall Street Journal has an interactive map that details some of the hits the top 50 U.S. newspapers have taken between 2006 and 2009. A detailed chart also lists the same information for the top 100 newspapers. From job cuts to revenue losses to shutdowns, the multimedia piece illuminates the trouble the industry has faced in recent years.

For the piece click here.

Average time spent declines for many in March

Among the top 30 newspaper websites in terms of unique monthly visitors, most saw a decline in the average time spent per visitor in March, according to Editor & Publisher.

The average time spent per person at the NYTimes.com dropped by six minutes in March 2009 compared to the same period a year ago. The NYTimes.com has some company: The Wall Street Journal lost more than five minutes March 2009. So did Politico.
In fact, just over half of the top 30 newspaper Web sites (ranked by uniques) experienced declines in the average time spent per person.

Some sites enjoyed large gains, however. Both The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Newsday improved by more than eight minutes.
The New York Times was overtaken in first place by the Star Tribune, which lost about thirty seconds to finish with an average of over 32 minutes.
While the news can be interpreted negatively from an advertising standpoint, it can also be a sign that the number of unique users is increasing, which is the case for some papers on the list.
To see the list and read more, click here.

Murdoch tells Dow Jones employees he will set an even "higher bar"

Rupert Murdoch spoke to Dow Jones employees at their Manhattan headquarters several hours after he bought their company, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal's Sarah Ellison.
Murdoch acknowledge that change creates nervousness and is sometimes difficult, but said Dow Jones must be the essential source of financial information and comment in the world.
Ellison reports says that Murdoch told employees he understood the value of Dow Jones and in particular The Wall Street Journal.
"If anything, you will find us trying to set a higher bar," Murdoch said.
Shareholders approved the more than $5 billion sale of Dow Jones & Co. to Murdoch's News Corp. on Thursday.
To read Ellison's full report click here.

Can Murdoch save newspapers?

Diane Mermigas, Editor-at-large at MediaPost, contemplates today about Rupert Murdoch's ability to save newspapers now that he has The Wall Street Journal in his hands. Mermigas says Murdoch's advantage is that he understands and embraces the notion of a global media landscape. He is able to envision possible digital applications of many currently undervalued, and often overlooked, assets.
While many publishers are expected to post a decline in revenues for the year, "News Corp.’s newspaper holdings are growing profits better than 25% annually to more than $650 million on $4.5 billion in revenues (and a 15% margin). It must be doing something right."
Read more from Mermigas here.

Snippets: Murdoch interviewed on Fox News

Shareholders approved News Corp's purchase of Dow Jones today. Rupert Murdoch then appeared on Fox News.

Snippets from the interview...

• He plans to develop international editions of The Wall Street Journal.

• In regard to competition with The New York Times: "We are a long way in front now."

• Despite the success of the WSJ.com paid subscriber model, Murdoch talks of making the site free saying they'll cover the subscription revenue by increasing total online circulation (viewers) resulting in greater online advertising revenue. More eyes, more ad dollars.
  

• On how to get young people reading newspapers again: "Make newspapers better and more exciting."

• On making articles shorter: Murdoch wants to "keep the paper busy." Perhaps break stories in parts, "guts on the front page" and the rest inside.

• On Fox Business Network: "It's going well." Dow Jones and Fox Business Network will help each other.

Murdoch also talked politics and shared views on the writers' strike and its impacts on the industry.

Wall Street Journal sale is final

This afternoon the majority of Dow Jones & Co. shareholders approved selling the company to News Corp. for $5.6 billion.
The general council of Dow Jones said shareholders holding 60.27 percent of the company's stock had been approved for the sale, according to reports from The Wall Street Journal.
The sale ends the Bancroft family ownership of Dow Jones, which dates back to more than a century.
To read the full report click here.

Approval likely for Wall Street Journal sale

The Wall Street Journal reports that a count of proxy votes indicates Dow Jones shareholders will approve a News Corp. takeover tomorrow.
Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. has offered to buy the company for more than $5 billion, which would end the Bancroft family long ownership of the newspaper.
For the full report click here.