Brand Battle: Wall Street Journal Vs. NY Times

Amid all the woes of the American newspaper business, it’s heartening to see a venerable newspaper and its associated brand on the rise. That is, unless you’re the New York Times.

That’s because one of the few newspaper brands with any palpable momentum these days is the Times' long-time, Gotham-based rival, The Wall Street Journal. Not only has its circulation actually been rising while the Times’ has been falling, but the Journal’s ownership by Rupert Murdoch has resulted in all sorts of successful brand-extending activities over the last couple of years.

There’s the Journal’s engaging, if relatively minor, foray into sports coverage, for instance. And its burgeoning co-branding efforts with corporate sibling Fox News.

And now comes word that the Journal likely is taking aim at the most valuable commodity still in the Times’ corral: its metro New York advertising base. Journal executives won’t confirm anything, but rumors are flying that the WSJ will begin heavy coverage of the area with a separate New York Metro section in April.

Not only does the Times rely heavily on major Manhattan retailers and other advertisers for a huge chunk of its advertising revenue, but also about 41 percent of the Times’ paid circulation reportedly comes from the metro New York market.

Such a move also could provide yet another brand-extension platform for The Wall Street Journal. Under Murdoch, editorially, the newspaper already has broadened its coverage of international and general domestic news far outside its previous purview. So if the Metro New York section works out, what would there be to stop the Journal from establishing regional metro coverage in other major markets such as Chicago, Los Angeles, and Miami?

The Wall Street Journal has been the nation’s business newspaper for decades. In years hence, it might be simply the nation’s newspaper.