The Wall Street Journal: Redesigning for Today’s Platforms Case Study Part I: Pick ONE of the following two case studies for this portion of the assignment

The Wall Street Journal: Redesigning for Today’s Platforms Case Study Part I:
Pick ONE of the following two case studies for this portion of the assignment, and follow the
steps associated with that case study.
Case Study #1: The Wall Street Journal: Redesigning for Today’s Platforms

Read the case study in Chapter 4 of the textbook titled “The Wall Street Journal:
Redesigning for Today’s Platforms”

In < 700 words, write a response essay that addresses the following questions/issues: ? How has the Wall Street Journal been a technology pioneer among its peers? Name and describe 2-3 ways in which the WSJ has been an innovator. ? What are some challenges faced by the Wall Street Journal? In other words, why don’t the issues that come up in this case lend themselves to simple, straightforward solutions? ? As a reader of online news, what are your thoughts about some of the features and limitations mentioned in the case? Is the Wall Street Journal generally getting it right, or should they take another approach? If you are not a reader of online news, that’s fine -- you can talk about your general opinions regarding the issues raised here in the case. You may consult outside sources to help inform your understanding of the general themes/ideas, but you do not need to. No citations are needed, either. Most of your time and energy should be devoted to the third section. I am looking to see case write-ups that demonstrate effort and originality -- not some particular “right” answer to the questions. Remember the word limit -- it is included here for a reason. The Wall Street Journal: Redesigning for Today’s Platforms F or 125 years, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) has been a venerated newspaper with a focus on business and a well-educated, discerning readership. It consistently ranks as one of the top publications world- wide in terms of number of subscribers (currently approximately 2.1 million). Despite its pedigree as one of the most recognizable and respected newspapers in the world, WSJ has also made an effort to stay on the cutting edge in an industry that has seen significant disruption in the past decade. It was a pioneer in developing a pay wall for its digital content in 1997, which met with skepticism and even ridicule at first, but is now increasingly common among online newspapers. WSJ was also one of the first news organizations with its own app for the iPad, released in 2010. From 2010 to 2015, however, WSJ began to lag behind other newspapers and websites as devices became smaller, more streamlined, and more specialized. Although it was a first mover into the mobile space, other papers like the Financial Times and USA Today made sweeping changes to their websites and mobile offerings during this time period that better suited mobile browsing. WSJ had not redesigned its website since 2008. To make matters worse, in 2015, Google updated its search algorithms to prioritize sites that are optimized for mobile devices, which caused WSJ’s search results to suffer. In response to these pressures, WSJ undertook a complete redesign of its website and mobile apps across multiple platforms in 2015. It released new iPad and Android apps with a variety of new features to improve user experience, and followed those up with the release of apps for the Apple Watch and for Windows 10. It also added its first mobileonly product, an app called What’s New that features a curated digest of 10 stories that is refreshed during the day, patterned after the column of the same name that appears on the front page of the print version. WSJ also launched a London-specific app called WSJ City that provides frequent updates on the most significant business news in London. The overhaul was more than just cosmetic. Organizationally, it also integrated the team that works on new technology products and design elements into the news room, 191 192 CHAPTER 4 Building an E-commerce Presence: Websites, Mobile Sites, and Apps SOURCES: “Wall Street Journal to Discontinue Its Windows 10 App on June 30th,” by Pradeep Viswanathan, Mspoweruser.com, June 22, 2017; “The Wall Street Journal Shutters Eight Blogs: The Tools for Telling Stories Have Changed,” by Christine Schmidt, Niemanlab.org, July 3, 2017; “The Wall Street Journal Is Killing Its What’s News App (But Bringing so that the editors themselves can have direct input into shaping the technological future of WSJ. This move has helped WSJ keep pace with other top newspapers, including the Washington Post, which has almost 50 engineers working in its newsroom. One of the most critical objectives of the overhaul was to ensure that the user experience was consistent across all of the different devices that readers use today and in the future. Being able to save an article on the iPad and open the app on your iPhone or log in to the website and see the same article with your progress saved was a top priority for WSJ. The number of options for navigating articles was reduced for simplicity and ease of use, with the number of exposed navigation options dropping by nearly half on many pages. In the past, options were different on different devices and appeared in different places on the screen, confusing readers attempting to move from one device to another. WSJ also allows users to carry over the “graying out” of article headlines that have been read across their devices as well as to access its Watchlist stock portfolio service across all devices. In addition to making the user experience more consistent across devices, WSJ hoped to improve it. The app versions of WSJ are more responsive and more visually appealing. Graphical elements are more prominent and even interactive. The app loads faster, which had been an area where it trailed its competitors in the past. WSJ wanted the reading experience to feel natural on any device, which required it to optimize its apps for the screen size of the latest generation of Apple and Android phones. As devices continue to evolve in size, so too will the WSJ app experience. On a desktop, users can mouse over and click precise areas, but on a mobile device, users can swipe and tilt the device. In general, WSJ seeks to minimize interactions requiring precise taps on mobile as well as to reduce the amount of the screen that is fixed from page to page. Most of the feedback on the design changes has been positive. Elements that many readers had requested were added, including a Market Data Center featured prominently on the new website home page with essential information on the status of the stock markets that day. The iOS app also includes a Journal widget that places top stories of the day alongside other daily notifications, such as appointments and weather alerts. Users can swipe directly from their widget menu to move straight to the story within the WSJ app. From a user perspective, the new site and apps provide a large number of content choices, while also offering a variety of advertising opportunities, which is beneficial from WSJ’s perspective. As traffic continues to shift to the mobile platform, providing these advertising opportunities will become increasingly important to WSJ’s continued success. In 2008, 10% of WSJ’s traffic came via mobile devices. By 2016, that figure had reached 55% and it continues to grow. WSJ has over 900,000 digital-only subscribers, representing over half of its total subscribers as well as half of its revenues. Although measuring subscription numbers has become more complicated as the number of digital devices and reading platforms has grown, the trend away from print and towards digital has long been clear throughout the industry. Despite the proliferation of the mobile platform, two-thirds of WSJ’s subscribers visit the website home page each month. Realizing this, WSJ included the website as a key component of its redesign. As it turns out, readers use whatever device is convenient at the time—desktop in the office and mobile devices when moving about. The Wall Street Journal: Redesigning for Today’s Platforms 193 Another effect of the wider array of options for WSJ subscribers is that different trends and reading patterns emerge on each platform. To capture this new data, WSJ is upgrading its analytics capabilities, with the goal of using them in the newsroom and in its larger business strategy. One example of this approach already delivering results is the breakdown of device usage by WSJ readers. Tablet usage of the WSJ app is growing at approximately 10% per year, but smartphone usage is growing by 30% to 40%, suggesting that the smartphone app experience should be WSJ’s major focus going forward. Additionally, WSJ has found that app users are more active and engaged than web browser users, spending more time in the app and reading more articles than other types of users. App users are also likelier to maintain their subscriptions than any other type of user. Many of the features that WSJ engineers are working on are tailored specifically for the app experience. One goal is to provide live video coverage via mobile devices. Another is to improve push alerts to make them more relevant to users. By analyzing reader data to understand what types of stories are most appealing to individual users or different demographics of users, WSJ can provide custom push alerts that are likeliest to motivate readers to swipe and move to the app. In 2017, WSJ changed the way it determines the success of push notifications, switching to a weighted open rate, which devalues users who use its apps infrequently and gives more weight to users who use its apps often. WSJ continues to test the language of its notifications, sending out multiple variations of some notifications to find similarities in the ones that perform best. WSJ also added the ability for users to follow individual reporters and receive notifications when they publish new stories. WSJ will also continue to optimize its Apple Watch app, which allows users to tilt the watch while looking at a headline to make that story available on the iPhone app. WSJ has begun to consolidate many of its different apps and sites, adding many of the features that users like to the flagship app and website. For example, in 2017, WSJ shut down its What’s News app, announcing that it would be incorporating its approach of displaying 10 stories of particular interest to users throughout the day on its main news app. It also announced plans to shut down many of WSJ’s individual blogs and to incorpo- rate that content back into the homepage. WSJ also announced that it was discontinuing its Windows 10 app. Other newspapers like the New York Times and Washington Post are undergoing a similar process, taking the lessons they have learned by innovating and introducing secondary apps and reincorporating those features in their main offerings. WSJ is also working on other features that will help in the future such as virtual reality technology, which it began offering in 2017 with a separate app. Although WSJ has dealt with declines in overall revenues and mounting losses, including drops of advertising revenue as steep as 21% in the third quarter of 2016, it hopes its digital growth will help it stem the tide. The company is refocusing on adding subscriptions, and has even adjusted its paywall to allow users to share articles to non-subscribers on social media. WSJ also now offers 24-hour guest passes in exchange for an e-mail address, information it hopes to use to convert more subscribers. WSJ hopes to reach 3 million subscribers by the end of 2017, an ambitious goal for a newspaper in this brave new world of news media. Purchase answer to see full attachment