From Business Insider · Lucia Moses · · 3m
WSJ plans ambitious streaming push with creator partnerships
The Wall Street Journal is building a slate of streaming shows including a morning program and interview series, courting creators like Emily Sundberg before plans shifted.
In brief
The Wall Street Journal is building a slate of streaming shows including a morning program and interview series, courting creators like Emily Sundberg before plans shifted. The Wall Street Journal is pursuing a major video expansion with streaming shows and creator partnerships, though its plans remain in flux…
Journal plans six streaming shows
The Wall Street Journal has been ramping up its push into video with plans for an ambitious slate of streaming TV shows. Internal documents described an initial six-series offering.
Flagship show and Tucker interview series
The planned slate included a flagship live morning program and an interview show hosted by the Journal's editor in chief, Emma Tucker. The documents are from the summer.
Creator partnerships in negotiations
The Journal had been in negotiations with creators such as Feed Me Substacker Emily Sundberg and the restaurant discovery platform The Infatuation. Sundberg dropped out of talks a few weeks ago.
Shows to launch across multiple platforms
The plans called for the shows to launch on the Journal's own channels, YouTube, and social media. Dow Jones is also hiring a head of programming and content.
Head of programming role pays up to $330,000
The live job description for Dow Jones' head of programming and content says the role will pay up to three hundred thirty thousand dollars in base salary.
News outlets racing to expand video
The Journal's effort shows how news outlets traditionally known for the written word, including The New York Times, are racing to beef up their video offerings.
Morning show with EverWonder production
The internal documents described the live morning show as a sixty-minute-long anchor of the initial slate.
Tucker interview show targets top CEOs
Another show was The Exchange with Emma Tucker, billed as a prestige interview franchise. Documents name-checked potential guests including Microsoft's Satya Nadella, JPMorgan Chase's Jamie Dimon, and BlackRock's Larry Fink.
Feed Me show would blend creator and news
The Journal had been in negotiations with Sundberg for a show called Feed Me, On Camera.
Other shows explored with partners
Other shows included Market Price with The Infatuation, tackling the business behind taste. Another was Inside Sports, a next generation reboot of Real Sports for the sports-as-an-asset class era, potentially helmed by Emmy-winning TV journalist…
Journal compared plans to The Daily
The Journal expressed big ambitions for a live morning news show, saying there had been nothing new in the category for a professional audience in a decade.
“We see an opportunity to reinvent the category”
Ambitious video production targets
The documents said the Journal aimed to produce twenty hours of video a week, expand to a free ad-supported streaming channel, and add subscription options.
Plans remain in flux, current status unclear
A person familiar with the Journal's strategy said the documents represented one of several avenues being explored and did not reflect the current status of its efforts.
The bottom line
The Wall Street Journal is pursuing a major video expansion with streaming shows and creator partnerships, though its plans remain in flux.
