The Wall Street Journal will be restructuring its print edition starting November 14. This will help the company cope with the declining print advertising.
The company said editor in chief Gerard Baker announced the changes to its staff in a memo on November 2. The new version of the paper will feature fewer pages and less space dedicated the coverage of arts, culture, and New York news.
Baker said in the memo that the Wall Street Journal is not alone as all newspapers face structural challenges. He said that "we must move to create a print edition that can stand on a sound financial footing for the foreseeable future."
The company's digital horizons are still continuing to expand. The Wall Street Journal has already offered buyouts to its staffers and warned of possible layoffs.
Politico reports that the announcement comes less than two weeks after The Wall Street Journal offered voluntary buyouts to all of its 1,500 employees. This was done to reduce the number of layoffs.
The Wall Street Journal's restructuring of its print edition also comes in the midst of anxiety and uncertainty coming from The Wall Street Journal's financial woes and how it's handling the changing newspaper industry.
The deadline for the voluntary buyout was earlier this week. The Independent Association of Publisher's Employees said they're aware that 48 unionized employees had their buyouts request accepted.
The new print edition of The Wall Street Journal will feature only two bigger sections on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. For Mondays and Fridays, the paper will have a third section while its weekend edition will remain unchanged.
The Business & Tech and Money & Investing sections will be combined into one to save on production costs. Mr. Baker said the news section "will contain the same amount of news space" as the company now have for the business, technology, financial and market coverage sections.
The Personal Journal and Arena sections will be combined into a new section called Life & Arts. This new section will become part of the A section of the newspaper.
The Great New York section will also be moved to the A section of the paper. It will be reduced to "a more concise, focused daily report on life and business in the New York area."
The restructuring of The Wall Street Journal's print edition was already previously announced by Baker as part of a larger restructuring of the paper's business. This is due to sharply declining revenue in advertising.
