Almar Latour, CEO of Dow Jones and publisher of ‘The Wall Street Journal’ | The Stack

hello and welcome to the stack this week I had the pleasure to interview Amar latur CEO of Down Jones and publisher of the Wall Street Journal plus Joshua glass founder of family style enjoy the show from idor housing London this is the stack 30 minutes of print industry analysis and I am Fernando gust we start the show with Omar lur CEO of Down Jones and publisher of the Wall Street Journal we had an in-depth conversation about the group's future plans the efforts to secure the release of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan gash kovich and much more and how the paper manages to stay above the politic SCH polarization founding many newsrooms here is Omar with more I am a journalist at heart and you never quite lose that instinct and that that impulse but I started as a news assistant for the Wall Street Journal prior to that an intern and that was very early in my career was based in many different countries as a foreign correspondent and it was in Brussels and in Stockholm right here in London um a reporter as well in New York I was a real scoop Hound I like breaking story so I still feel that drive to get the story these days I always feel is a good sign when you start as an intern and I'll look at you you know so you started as an exactly there you go maybe that's why I was saying this as well uh first of all one question we're definitely going to be talking about the W Street Journal here but tell us about Dow Jones what does this the group encompasses because there are quite a a few brands in this group right it's a it's a group of Publications and verticals if you will a company that's focused on reliable information for business people to make decisions for people in policy to make decisions for people in their lives to make business decisions of sorts there are different areas of focus there's business news that's the Wall Street Journal prime example of that there is wealth and investing news and information that's barrons and market watch these are sizable Publications in their own right with a devoted fan base then we have areas where there's news but there's also data and analytics energy is one area that is incredibly important to the world and to us as a business as well where we offer data on different Commodities where we offer analytics and forecasting there's a business that focuses on risk for example as a company how do you respond to sanctions and how do you avoid doing business with people entities that are on a sanctions list there's a search engine a business search engine called factiva that has billions of articles that knowledge workers use but Dow Jones is about reliable information for people to make decisions in their business life and in their personal lives you mentioned reliable there I mean let's be honest Omar we we're living in a kind of unpredictable world in the last years do you think people go to the source because I've been looking at the numbers of did to subscriptions and and there's been growth among Don Jones and the all Street Journal do you think that's one of the reasons people are looking for this reliability in a way well there is so much noise and there is so much misinformation there is so much opinion often Undeclared opinion and so there's so much confusion I think there's a great deal of anxiety around that among readers and consumers of news and information around the world and so yes when people finally find a place where they I can trust this information I think that's comforting I think it helps them in their daily lives and yes that translates into good business definitely for us we have seen across Dow Jones a sharp increase in our business for the Wall Street Journal itself we have more subscriptions than ever before we see that for baren for market watch as well and so there is a premium for in in your life people put a premium on reliability of information that also means as a business we can treat this as a premium product and I was reading one of your interviews I mean when you talking about this growth as well that you you almost wanted to double down in what you guys do best you know business and of course to be honest you know I'm a fan of the brand I love the magazine I love the Ki articles but is is that your approach that we listen guys we do this well we do business very well so let's definitely focus our resources on that is that the approach you take yes you have to in in modern day publishing you have to be aware of what your strength is of what your focus is and I believe in order to be successful you do have to double down on that now the way we Define business one it's of course narrating what's happening in the actual business world but it's also the business lens on The Wider world and the articles that you're referencing that type of coverage we still retain that business lens which is a little bit detached but finding the unique angle very often data driven stories that come out no matter where we focus that lens and and so that's our strength that's where we've decided and and definitely I've pushed this to make sure that we do stay focused and that we don't dilute our presence and dilute our focus at the expense of what we're really good at and what we're known for and Omar I must ask you as well about Evan gash kovich I mean what a story I remember when the whole thing happened here at Monaco's fellow journalists we really felt for it we covered a lot but thankfully we had some good news but how was it for your brand to be involved in this because it was a massive story globally it's been a massive challenge for journalism in a way yes it is a global story and and that's in part I believe because of the passion that people brought to the cause of Evans release we saw that from the Wall Street Journal Newsroom at a Grassroots level people being so passionate about fighting for their colleague we saw it from Evans Family his mom and his dad his sister who pushed so hard and really put themselves out there but we also saw it from The Wider news media Community I don't recall a moment not for decades really where the entire industry came together and fought for one cause in this case the release of Evan and that's because in addition to this freedom of course being incredibly important for a young man just 32 when he was arrested for a crime that he did not commit he was not a spy that was so incredibly important not just for Evan but for the industry at large because this is about press freedom and press Freedom around the world is under assault first and foremost in autocratic countries like Russia and for the news industry to make a concerted effort to fight that I think is important and so there was I think a lot of solidarity based on this could happen to anyone in journalism we have to be loud about it so from the start I personally said and our editor-in chief Emma Tucker also pushed hard to be loud about this to not quietly let this happen and put a spotlight on it and as a result I think press Freedom has gotten a lot of attention that maybe otherwise it wouldn't have gotten quite to dis degree Evan is out that was the the most important thing it was it was an amazing moment and it was a difficult year and a half for him and for his family and I think for everyone who knows everything but also as a company was a a difficult Journey with a rare good ending know I can imagine and you mentioned Emma is funny because I I used to admire Emma's work at the Sunday Times here in the UK and now she's doing a great job as well the a Street Journal how International actually is because of course it's an American company but how International is your audience and your reach yeah we're a a global entity so Dow Jones as a whole is very much a global company we have offices in 56 different locations around the world uh we have a readership that spans across the globe and and so we are Global our managers hail from different places around the world and so when we talk about that business lens I think it is important to also have a Global Perspective so we are the Wall Street Journal and DOW Jones those are quintessential American brands but they reach far beyond the US and well talking about global and the US now of course the American elections I think they're well they're coming out very soon and we had the debate this week how are you planning to do this coverage at the Wall Street Journal are there any lessons you've learned from the last two elections which have been quite difficult I guess to report because you know it's been quite uh I don't know how to put the word but yeah kind of controversial very unusual compared to the previous ones as well well this is of course an important moment in history like any us election but perhaps more so now because of the turmoil that the world finds itself in and there's nothing more important than our Newsroom to stay focused on the facts to be unbiased to be levelheaded and to apply that business lens to be detached and cover this as emotionless as one can and I think this is where we uniquely have to put our emphasis to say that when you come to the Wall Street Journal when you come to our other Publications you are not going to get a biased perspective Emma Tucker recently sent a note to The Newsroom just reminding everybody that we have to check our own biases when stories are written you have to comb through them and make sure that there is not something that invertedly is positioned in a way that declares a preference or or an instinct but that it's strictly focused on facts and that is so important because what we've seen and this for businesses in media this is hugely consequential what we've seen in various election Cycles is news organization some news organizations leaning in heavily to a Viewpoint or to a certain lens of what's happening to the country or to the world and that can have a a reinforcing mechanism with an audience that sort of becomes a fan base for that but what you see as a business business maybe your audience goes up when those emotions are really really high but your audience can dwindle and your business can dwindle when that fervor of the the fan base of the the readership of the audience goes away and so what you're then left with is a weakened business that sort of catered to the moment but the worst thing I think one can do as a media organization is to seed your credibility and show that actually you yes you did have a bias you did have a certain way of looking at things that wasn't perhaps entirely factual you took implicitly or explicitly took signs and and that is something that once your impartiality is lost it's hard to regain and we have managed through multiple election Cycles to stay away from that to make sure that our newsrooms are detached and are not declarative when it comes comes to political preferences and and so that is something that has to be earned every day it has to be earned in The Newsroom but it also has to be part of a culture we have a code of conduct that is really pivotal in that where we remind our reporters but also other employees who make it all possible to not be engaged politically to not be on social media sharing your Viewpoint even though that may be tempting because you see so many viewpoints come along and you may have individual feelings about that but as a reporter and and certainly as an institution you have at our institution a responsibility to uphold that impartiality that commitment to facts and we are something of an oasis I would say in in a wider news media landscape that's a very good point actually are super interesting and one thing that I'm curious we're talking about growth I want you to talk about perhaps the plans for 2024 2025 but I'm also curious this Sprint still play a big role for you you know I love print you know I love reading as well the W Street Journal in print so I would like to hear it from you yeah what's not to love about print right the tactile the moments that you have the tradition the crinkling of the paper the sound the focused information that that is presented and the News choices that have been made that are there unapologetically and here is how they rank and that's a service we have hundreds of thousands of very loyal customers who cherish and love print uh I know this so well of course because I'm a print reader myself and my neighbors are too but more so that if a Wall Street Journal print copy does not get delivered I will know almost immediately and I get I get letters and emails and calls based on that but as a business it's also important that as we put the customer first that in fact does not mean you only go digital because our customer wants the news and and the perspectives and the facts that we offer in any way that they find comfortable and print is very much part of that equation at this point now of course print industry as a whole is is undergoing massive changes it's it's restructuring and such but it's still a very important part of our business and we will continue to offer print for as long as there are people who cherish that experience and we take great pride in in having a phenomenal experience in print no please continue please continue so you're looking optimistic any new markets you're interested to invest perhaps Asia could be an interesting lookout for for Don Jones and the Wall Street Journal well we have a a strong presence around the world we for a long time had a presence across Asia right after my visit to London I'm off to to Singapore where we have our de facto Asian headquarters we have hundreds of people that work there for Dow Jones it's an area of growth it's an area where there is also a premium on factual information it's an area where business and geopolitical developments are so Dynamic and so we have to be there to understand the world and to explain the world and to have that business lens we have to be in all parts of the world and so Asia very much part of that Europe of course Very Much part of that where are there opportunities I think in individual countries there are opportunities I think with the arrival of generative AI now we've been players in AI for a long time through factiva and through Dow Jones newswires with the arrival of generative translation uh is becoming uh easier uh I I was the editor-in-chief of the Wall Street Journal in Asia it was based out of Hong Kong for a long time and started different Publications in language The Wall Street Journal in Japanese we strengthened the pre-existing Wall Street Journal in Chinese we did one in Bahasa to reach the Southeast Asian and Indonesian audience we did one in Korean but at the time and that's not even that long ago it's yeah just over a decade ago that took uh Legions of translators and with technology you can do so much more when it comes to translation and so many other things but as we're talking about having global reach I believe believe that both our commitment to the global story and the world becoming more complex that drives us to a place of being more active around the world and the threshold for connecting with readers and with users and people who care about facts around the world that threshold becomes lower business as a story business as a community is global and has been for as long as memory goes back and so that's a unique strength and there are unfortunately very few Publications media organizations that have Global reach these days and I say unfortunately because I do think it's important to have that competition around the world and I think it's important that as we grapple with major issues as to what the course of our societies around the world will be it is important to have that Global Perspective and to understand the positions that governments around the world take the trends that are happening in in in different nations and in different regions if you don't have that full information it's harder to make the right decisions Clarence Baron who was a uh publisher the president of the the Wall Street Journal he he owned Dow Jones uh 100 years ago or so he liked to say what we're about is truth to good ends and I I really like that when I was a publisher for Barons I found this phrase or something something close to it in in in one of his writings and I I so like that because we want to present facts and we invest a lot in getting those facts but it's really about putting people in a position to make decisions that then lead to good outcomes and for that to happen we have to be Global we have to be experts in the core areas that matter to Society at large that matter to the to the business community and so we're making sure that we go deeper in our knowledge that we go wider with our Global reach that we can serve up our information to exactly how people want it print included but also in digital also in video also in audio and make sure that we are available to as wide an audience as possible but as deep as possible an information set available to them to make good decisions thank you very much I'm Mara T there CEO of Down Jones and publisher of the Wall Street Journal and now we head to New York to speak with Joshua glass founder of family style a beautiful new magazine focusing on creativity community and cuine throughout print editorial digital content and immersive experiential Affairs here is Joshua with more an America we call family style when you eat together with your friends and you share everything it's just sort of an informal work to explain that and that's really the feeling that we try to create with everything that we do from the print magazine to our digital content to our events we use food as a a through line to everything we do because food is something that everyone understands it's what brings people together but it's also what sets people apart and what people establish their lives around right you remember the food you ate with your loved ones growing up and you pass that down to your loved ones now and so everyone has a story everyone feels that through food and we explore that in the different mechanics of fashion art design and culture we're not a food magazine but we use food as an expression to explore contemporary culture there is plenty of food I mean Francis malman as well I think he's kind of the the chef guest editor of the the latest issue right exactly yeah I mean don't get me wrong food is a big aspect of of what we do but it's not the defining quality every issue does follow this motif of a dinner party so we do invite a guest Chef every issue our first issue was Gregory gorde Gregory gorde is an American Haitian Chef who grew up between New York and Haiti and really experience what colonial culture means he went through his own issues with material substance abuse and I think he's he's I know he's come out on the other side extremely strong and extremely resilient so now his kitchen he has three kitchens but his kitchen's all about Progressive ideology and democracy and visibility and both a social stance but also in terms of food looking at what does a culture's food look like when the culture has been governed by other cultures for most of his existence Francis mman to your point is sort of like one of the most iconic living chefs and to have him Be Our Guest editor of our second issue as a dream come true I chose Francis because Francis is a chef but he's also an architect he designs structures but he also designs worlds that he himself is a star in right he if you ever seen him on TV or if you been to a dinner that he's created Francis presents it's like the theater he speaks wholeheartedly and passionately about every course and he gets very emotional about it in a way that is extremely inspiring and also extremely captivating our next issue which we mentioned comes out in October Our Guest issue is Layla gohar who is another kind of food artist but in a very different kind of sort of circumstance lla creates these food installations and food sculptures that seem larger than life that's because they are sometimes they're several football field long sometimes they're the size of the palm of your hand so we love working with chefs in different capacities we love understanding and questioning what does the chef mean today and we love using chefs to look at ourselves and understand how our own relationship with food changes and develops and evolves over time I know you worked in great Publications before but is this kind of the first magazine you actually found it's yeah it's 100% yeah I I've spent my entire career working at some of the best magazines around the world but this is an entirely different kind of endeavor we are independent I founded it less than a year ago and so it is in a way Uncharted Territory because we're driving it as we build everything there's no sort of formula or road to follow we're we're sort of trying as we go along but do you feel like you know following you know the social media account of family style I see that you guys do a lot of events so in a way it kind of matches I mean what the magazine is all about you know talking about family style so is that import is it that important for the brand yeah I think like from a business conversation it was really important to establish ourselves as both a high caliber publication but also a well-rounded company and so our business is 360 the magazine is my full heart and I always say it's our brand expression right so we work on it very passionately very diligently almost all the time if you zoom out we do a lot of Social and digital content right whether it's on our website through our Instagram with our editors at large and then our events are really sort of cherry on top and that as you just said brings everything together and really allows our guest the feel the message in real life so how often actually the magazine comes out because you know there's an one coming out very soon now in October quarterly quarterly okay Fant and and give us more of a preview actually for issue 3 I know you can review everything which is absolutely fine yeah of course so we're quarterly because I thought quarterly was a really nice sort of frequency to work off I started off working at a bimonthly magazine so six times a year and that is a really hard pace and I think also the the rate at which people consume content is so different so bi monthly is really news driven and really sort of small pieces if you look at the last 10 years or so independent magazines that have launched are really been biannual Focus which is twice a year and that to me feels like almost the other end of the spectrum it's almost too long of a lead time and then you get these boohemoth Publications out of 400 500 pages and there are some stories that feel like they go on forever I thought quarterly was a really nice Pace in terms of our workload I thought from a Content side it was nice that we followed the natural seasons of the earth cycle but also the fashion seasons and the art Seasons so we do follow spring summer collections fall winter Collections and the two Resort collections but we also come out around all the different art fairs around the world these are all really important touch points for us every issue that we do does have a theme and so our fall issue is our third issue which comes out in October the theme of which is extremist every day so we're looking at items and people and tools of of normaly and how does extreme sort of exist in their lives and what actually is Extreme and what does that mean and how does that permeate so it's a lot of fashion it's our biggest fashion sort of moment yet we're speaking to people that we've admired throughout my entire career people like hder arriman gra a dumi who is a new Young Nigerian designer who just came up Alexander Fury Daniel whom Etc it's it's a nice mix it's not just fashion we sort of approached our other topics art design culture with a fashion tensibility so it is fully well-rounded but it's a lot of fashion Pages which I'm really excited because we haven't really done so much fashion so far yet oh this fantastic and Joshua you are based in New York I'm curious do you still see kind of New York as this great place to make magazines I mean it is always a fantastic City but of course there's been some challenges about the new stands and everything but please go on and defend New York for us I I mean I love New York I don't think I would ever leave New York I've been offered the opportunity a few different times to go abroad and to go west I think New York is the center of culture for art and fashion really I mean of course there are other meccas you can have a Mecca wherever you'd like it to be and you can look at the our Market is booming in Los Angeles and it's booming in sou Paulo Etc but I think like at least nationally in America New York is is the most interesting place we're in between America and Europe we do a lot of work in Europe it's an extremely expensive city it's extremely challenging City I've been here for almost 18 years I I I know firsthand how hard it is but I think it's also extremely rewarding right so when I meet with a photographer who doesn't have a studio and is struggling to get by you know off their one or two commercial gigs I understand it's hard and it's hard to take a risk on doing editorial but I think opportunities in New York outweigh the challenges and the cons we are based here primarily but we do have another office at London and London is a really big market for us London is sort of like the gateway to Europe our fashion director Nathan Klein is based there and we work with a lot of British photographers and British stylists and of course we shoot the most in Paris Paris being the best place for fashion and the best place for models but really I think like New York is it is sort of a watering hole right everyone comes to New York really so it's not a matter of when they're coming it's a matter of when the right time is if that makes sense thank you Joshua glass founder of family style issue 3 will'll be out soon and to find out more go to family. style and that's it for this week's show my thanks as ever to editor Jack jwes any comments or queries feel free to write to me Fernando at fpn mono.com and remember we're back next Saturday at 10:00 a.m. London time meanwhile you can always listen again at mono.com And subscribe be to the show on Apple podcast and Spotify or even on YouTube you've been listening to the stack I'm F it's goodbye from me