Why I Read The Wall Street Journal

I didn’t start reading it religously until I was about 40, but I love the Wall Street Journal. I’m sure many people who read the Journal see it primarily as a newspaper with a strong financial emphasis, which is true. But the thing I like most about the Journal is the way its editorials and columns connect financial and economic news to a social and cultural context. I like that the Journal allows space for long articles include explanations as well as statements. Explicitly and implicitly, the Journal presents coherent world-views along with its news. You might not agree with every point of view, but I find the perspectives are much more on display and under debate in comparison to most newspapers or magazines. The Journal does more than inform; it gives you some insight into the thoughts of the people who present the information.

It’s because of the unique connection of news and ideas that unread Journals pile up around my office. Even if I’m not using the Journal as a source of current news and information, there are still great pearls of knowledge waiting to be discovered. That’s why I try to give every issue a once-over, regardless of the date, because I know there’s probably something worthwhile in every issue. It might be in the letters to the editor, a piece on the Opinion page, a book review, or a comment in the Houses of Worship feature that appears every Friday. I don’t know what, but usually I find something.

 The other day, I pulled up a stack of Journals still wrapped in the protective newspaper baggies (that’s how they come delivered to my mailbox). They were more than a year old. “Aww, maybe I should just pitch ‘em,” I thought. “After all, if I hadn’t read them in the past year, any thing I’ve missed hasn’t made a difference.” But I’m one of those people who’s a compulsive reader. If it’s printed, I’m reading it – back of the cereal box, nutritional label, junk mail, fine print on the menu, anything. So, of course, I sat down to read. A half hour later, I still have three issues left to scan, but I’ve also found a couple of new ideas for my newsletter, plus an article to show my wife. In addition, skimming old news gives me the chance to see whether the financial and political prognostications were accurate (the sub-prime crisis was on the radar, but the magnitude of the problem wasn’t seen, Obama and Hillary yes, McCain no, and boy did Mitt Romney implode).

 I know some of my older peers, particularly those who have more money and grew up on the East Coast, prefer Investor’s Business Daily or the New York Times, but for my money the Wall Street Journal is best newspaper in America – although it took me almost 20 years to arrive at that conclusion.

 My introduction to the Journal came in my sophomore year in college. I took an economics class taught by a distinguished older professor who had been a frequent economic policy advisor for the Johnson, Nixon and Carter administrations. One of the requirements for his class was every student had to subscribe to the Journal for the entire semester – and learn how to read the paper. This meant scanning the “What’s News” section (at that time it was once column on the front page), checking the editorials, and reading articles from the business and investment section. I shared a subscription with another student in my dorm, and made half-hearted efforts to read it according to the professor’s instructions, but never really got it. There wasn’t anything that resembled a sports page, no comics, and I just didn’t have the educational background or life experience to tackle some of the editorial perspectives.

 It wasn’t until I was about five years into my career in the financial services field that the Wall Street Journal became relevant. And it wasn’t just the financial stuff that grabbed me. It was the human interest stories of business, the political commentaries, the historical perspectives, the sophisticated entertainment reviews. It seemed like every section had something I wanted to read.

 I know the non-reading, give-me-streaming-video younger demographic probably doesn’t have the same affinity I have for newspapers. I know USA Today has its niche as “McPaper,” something that’s quick to read and easy to digest. But I appreciate the Journal’s depth, and the time it takes to read it. I think the best way I can describe it is that the Wall Street Journal is a newspaper for adults. From my experience, reading the Wall Street Journal is one of the ways you know you’ve become an adult. I was 35 when the Journal started making sense to me, and that’s about the time I finally “crossed the line” into adulthood.

 I hear stories about the decline of newspapers and other print media. A lot of the blame for this demise is placed on television, the Internet, and the fast pace of life. On one hand, I can see the connection. Most local daily papers aren’t much more than print versions of national wire stories and local TV news reports – received a day later. It’s more convenient (and more current) to click on the news scroll running across the top of my computer screen when I’m online.

On the other hand, when newspapers like the Wall Street Journal suffer circulation declines, I’m more inclined to think the problem isn’t competition from the Internet and Action News. The reason fewer people read the Wall Street Journal is because they simply aren’t as many adults in America as there used to be. There’s a lot of people over the age of 18, but not many adults.