A redesigned Wall Street Journal launched this morning and is described a juicy Newsweek story on Rupert Murdoch, which includes a nugget about how the News Corp. chief has been working overtime, including on Easter. He has become "a regular and jarring presence in the Journal newsroom" and scared staffers are working Sundays to keep him happy. Murdoch is no doubt motivated to live up to a somewhat bitter letter he sent a chagrined Arthur Sulzberger Jr. at the Times, which included the phrase "Let the battle begin!" Here is quick list (modeled and partly based on this one) of current and planned changes to the Journal, which basically amount to making it less business focused:

  • More politics, international and other non-business news in the front section.
  • The second section, Marketplace, becomes "home to the Journal's coverage of corporate America," which sounds a lot like the business newspaper's business section.
  • But there's still Money and Investing, which will still have your harder markets and investing news.
  • The op-ed section goes to three pages from two.
  • A culture section is coming in the fall for the weekend Journal.
  • Also in the fall: The website gets "beefed-up interactivity and access to more free articles"

Old-school critics continue to worry that Murodch is diluting the very things that set the Journal apart from the Times and other competitors:

"Turning a paper into an old-fashioned variety show-we have a little of everything-I don't think is the route to success," says a former senior Dow Jones executive. "The risk you run is that you are not best at anything." But the same critics also warn that "it's never a good time to have to confront someone like Murdoch, who doesn't care about making money on a particular product," says newspaper analyst John Morton.

[Newsweek]