NY Times and WSJ: An old fashioned newspaper war

Posted by Leah McBride Mensching on April 14, 2010 at 6:47 PM

The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times are now locked in a good old fashioned newspaper war, one likely to cost both U.S. dailies modern day millions.

Yesterday, The Times gave its online business section a facelift to better compete with the WSJ's main offering, business news. Last week, word came out that both newspapers were offering discounts for ad prices, and prior to that the WSJ announced it would launch a New York edition in late April. The WSJ is also cutting its subscription prices by up to 80 percent in some cases as it aims to challenge The Times. Last month, the WSJ even used part of Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr.'s face to illustrate a supposed facial feature on feminine men.

Image: VF.com

"Murdoch to Sulzberger: You Are a Girly Man," Vanity Fair quipped about the incident.

The two newspapers have also battled for turf at Starbucks, poached reporters, fought over advertisers, beefed up newsrooms and more, according to Business Insider.

The Times' Richard Pérez-Peña wrote that the WSJ's New York edition "is intended less to raise circulation numbers than to steal away a large portion of the consumer advertisers -- like high-end retailers, luxury goods makers and residential real estate companies -- that have traditionally preferred The Times.

"What is puzzling to analysts and industry executives -- including some within the News Corporation -- is that none of this makes much sense as a business proposition to aid The Journal, especially at a time when newspapers are struggling through a long-term financial decline. But for Mr. Murdoch, the chairman and chief executive of the company, these people say, profit is not necessarily what all this is about."

Rupert Murdoch, meanwhile, said The Times "overlooked" New York.

"An old-fashioned, honest-to-God press war is unfolding in our town, revitalizing the local media scene after months of torpor. In a few weeks, on April 26, The Journal will begin its clearest attack on The Times ever, right in its own backyard," the New York Observer's John Koblin wrote today.

The WSJ's managing editor, Robert Thomson, has said his advice to readers of The Times "is cancel your subscription, read it on the Web for free and buy The Journal," according to Koblin. "You'll be impressed by how the coverage broadened out, even if you aren't a businessperson. There's a great opportunity for New Yorkers to sample The Times for free, and for less money than a Times subscription, you'll get The Journal for six days."

Thomson and Sulzberger are even at odds over what happened when the two met at a dinner party, with Times spokesman Bob Christie telling Gawker that "Clearly, principle is a bystander at the house of Thomson. He owes his employees and readers an apology." Dow Jones spokeswoman Ashley Huston said the WSJ is "not responding to this."