Inside the Wall Street Journal: The History and the Power of Dow Jones and Company and America’s Most Influential Newspaper

“The Wall Street Journal publishes the world’s most vital business and financial news and information,” says Jerry M Rosenberg in his book “Inside the Wall Street Journal”. This book is about the history and the power of the Wall Street Journal. The book gives us an overview of how the Journal was launched and how it has become America’s most influential newspaper. The motto of the Wall Street Journal was “The Truth in its Proper Use,” and its editors had vowed to “print a daily journal that could not be controlled by any advertiser or combination of advertisers or by any speculative or promotion interests”.
The book has 19 chapters and starts with the chapter “The New England Baptist and the Connecticut Yankee”. This chapter tells us how three young reporters Charles Dow, Edward Jones and Charles Bergstresser founded Dow Jones & Company in 1882. The chapter also tells us how Dow, Jones’s operations relied entirely on manpower and how the Wall Street Journal was born from “Customer’s Afternoon Letter”. In 1896, the company launched what is now known as the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the world’s most widely followed stock-market indicator, tracking the world’s largest stock market.
“The Barron Years” tells us about Clarence W. Barron, who had been hired years before to be Dow Jones’ first out-of-town correspondent. In 1902 he purchased control of the company following Mr. Dow’s death. Journal circulation was about 7,000. But by 1920 it had reached 18,750. Mr. Barron introduced modern printing equipment, and the newsgathering side of the company expanded. The end of the 1920s printed over 50,000 copies of the Journal printed daily.
The book later talks about the “The Depression Years” of 1929, “World War Two”, and “Postwar Growth”. Rosenberg informs us that during the 1929 Depression the subscription of the Wall Street Journal went down to 28,000 from 52,000. This was the first challenge faced by the Journal as advertising all but disappeared.
“The 60’s and Beyond” tells us that the circulation of the Journal surpassed one million, and coverage of social issues, science, education and foreign affairs was added or expanded while business news coverage was improved. In addition, Dow Jones extended its commitment to global publishing by introducing “Barron’s National Business and Financial Weekly” and the “Ottaway Newspaper Empire”. Ottaway Newspapers Inc. publishes 19 daily and 15 weekly newspapers in communities coast to coast.
“Covering Asia,” explains how Dow Jones expanded outside the U.S., first with investments in the Far Eastern Economic Review, then in 1976 with The Asian Wall Street Journal, the first daily newspaper to provide comprehensive coverage of business and economic news for an Asia-wide audience. “Dow Jones News Service” tells us how it delivers a spectrum of real-time global business and financial news on more than 333,000 terminals to financial professionals across five asset classes: equities, fixed income, foreign exchange, commodities and energy.
In the chapter ” A Technological Newspaper” Rosenberg tells how technology has changed, is changing, and will change ‘The Wall Street Journal’. Rosenberg comments that it is the number one outlet for technology advertising in print, and technology has surpassed even finance as a leading advertising category. He says that with the advent of telephones, computers fax machines it has become easier to report from any part of the world.
Wall Street Journal has designed to provide all employees of Dow Jones with guidelines for appropriate professional conduct as ‘Business Integrity’ is necessary in every business decision says Rosenberg in the chapter “Speaking on the Presidency”.
The book also talks about the values The Wall Street Journal stands for. “An editorial philosophy of ‘free people, free markets’ that has endured the tests of time and tides, and is more vibrant today than ever before. And the Journal stands for this philosophy around the world, including corners of it where it remains controversial — and including countries where they have paid a financial price for their commitment. They don’t endorse political candidates, not because it’s unclear on most occasions where their sympathies lie, but because they think ideas matter most.” They don’t endorse political candidates, not because it’s unclear on most occasions where their sympathies lie, but because they think ideas matter most.”- Jerry M. Rosenberg.
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