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September 5, 2008

Downturn does not stop Murdoch launching “Magazine for the rich”

By Jeffery Blyth

It’s already being called “A magazine for the rich”.

This weekend subscribers to the Wall Street Journal will receive with their paper the first copy of a new glossy magazine called WSJ. It’s the latest effort of Rupert Murdoch to make America’s number one financial newspaper into a more widely read publication. Already since he took over he has introduced more social news, theatre and film reports and even some sports news

The new glossy is a big attempt to attract not so much new readers but top-of-the line advertising. The first issue runs to more than 100 pages – and has more than 50 advertisers, mostly the sort publications covet with names like Dior and Hermes.

In some ways it resembles How To Spend It, the weekend magazine of the Financial Times but according to Tina Gaudoin, editor of WSJ, her magazine will be less about how to spend money but more about how to live a wealthy life. Iin keeping with that thought the magazine was shown for the first time this week at a Press breakfast in New York’s august Pierpoint Morgan Library which included smoked salmon, caviar and raspberry parfait.

Executives declined to say how much the Journal is investing in WSJ – but did make a point that it will be going to subscribers – about 800.000 altogether – with an average annual household income of $265,000. WSJ will start out as a quarterly but plans to go monthly by next year.

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