Journal Starts Monthly Magazine

The Wall Street Journal will announce today that it is launching a monthly glossy magazine called Pursuits, designed to explore "the world of wealth," according to the Journal's publisher, Dow Jones & Co.

Aimed at building the Journal's consumer advertising revenue, including from luxury-goods and travel advertisers, the new magazine is expected to launch next September, distributed with the Journal's Saturday edition. Its content will be made available free online, outside the Journal's paid subscription wall.

Plans for the new magazine were completed last week at a meeting between Dow Jones executives and Rupert Murdoch, chief executive and chairman of News Corp., which has agreed to buy Dow Jones for more than $5 billion.

The Journal has used the Pursuits name as the title of the lifestyle section of its Saturday edition since launching the Saturday paper two years ago, but it dropped the name this past weekend. The name Weekend Journal now appears on the lifestyle section of the Saturday paper, in addition to the Friday edition.

The Journal didn't name an editor for the magazine, but Robert Frank, the paper's wealth reporter and author of the book "Richistan," about lifestyles of rich people, has been heavily involved in its conception and is expected to play a senior role in the magazine.

Size Matters in the UK

Audiences for print, online and events will be listed together for what is allegedly the first time ever in this week's Audit Bureau of Circulations release.


The Guardian reports that the average circulation of magazines proffered by the BBC and IPC Media will be featured alongside audience figures for other platforms, which common practice among newspaper publishers but unheard-of in the magazine world.

CEO Chris Boyd of the Bureau pointed out, "It has never been so important for media owners and buyers to consider full brand reach when making decisions […] The report enables media owners to offer agencies and advertisers verified, cross-platform data in an increasingly complex market - something that will become ever more important."

BBC Magazines will be the first to make the move. The firm also audits event attendance, in addition to online and print.

Its report, which will cover the period between January and June, will include circulation for seven magazines, attendance figures for four events, and user data for two online platforms.