"The Wall Street Journal" Rebrand: Too Little Too Late?

In the current economic climate, many in the financial services industry understand that Wall Street needs a rebrand. It appears this need to rebrand all things Wall Street extends to The Wall Street Journal as well. Starting this week, the iconic newspaper is launching an ambitious rebranding campaign to position the paper as the most comprehensive source of information available to readers. It even has a catchy tagline.

"Live in the Know" is the tagline that heads up a campaign that, in the vice president of brand marketing's words, "... highlights the breadth and deeper understanding readers get every day only from reading the Journal. We want to invite new readers to discover the diverse coverage The Wall Street Journal delivers, from business news, world news and politics, to more personal topics such as wellness, personal finance and leisure pursuits." The campaign will appear in print, online, cable television, and various broadcasts.

Founded in 1889, the paper rose to be the most respected business publication in the world. It boasts 33 Pulitzers. However, like all newspapers, The Wall Street Journal is hurting and desperately needs to retain and court new readers. The paper must appeal to a younger generation; according to Quantcast, the Journal has nearly 5 million unique readers per month but the majority are male and over 50. Lately it has tried to preserve reader share through price cuts, selling one-month subscriptions for just $10. (They were $189 a month just seven years ago.) It has also taken some PR lumps, including an ongoing battle between the paper's owner, Rupert Murdoch, and Google.

No branding campaign is going to completely stop the hemorrhaging that newspapers are suffering. The New York Times has attempted similar branding gambits in the last few years, including "These Times Demand The Times" and "I read it for..." campaigns. Results have not been wildly successful. Now The New York Times is again considering a pay-wall, like The Wall Street Journal's.

It's not a good sign that this rebrand comes less than three years after the paper's last (catchy!) brand campaign, "Every Journey Needs a Journal," which focused on celebrity endorsements. Is The Journal's latest "Live in the Know" campaign simply too little too late?