Students get the inside scoop on "The Wall Street Journal"

By Ron Orol

Gerald Seib assistant bureau chief of the Wall Street Journal's Washington bureau, talked to students at the Washington Journalism Center on Oct. 6 about the changing world of journalism. According to Seib, the journalistic activities he is involved with today are vastly different than those he was involved in a few years ago.

I wrote an analysis piece of the presidential debate one night and the next morning I talked on CNBC about the debate and then later spent some time at the Wall Street Journal web chat room to discuss it with readers," said Seib.

"I have a chance to interact with people in many different places on different levels."

But the new multimedia approach to journalism is not all positive. He said that with the advent of web-based versions of publications, it becomes increasingly difficult to decide when to publish stories and how to write them.

"With the fast-paced Internet there is a temptation to not do the full story but get it out right away," said Seib, adding that with the ever-increasing information revolution, as more information becomes available, it becomes more important to sift and analyze
data than ever before.

"My 12-year-old can download almost any kind of information but he can't
understand a lot of it. We need people that can go through the information and
help make sense of it."

Seib said many stories don't get the same punch if published first online in the WSJ Interactive Edition.

"We might also want to keep what we feel is an exclusive article for the print version which has more readership."

Currently there are two web-reporters in the Washington D.C. WSJ bureau, in addition to three in California and anther two in New York. The Wall Street Journal's Washington bureau has a total of 40 people working in editorial - 35 reporters and five editors.
Seib said that Dow Jones NewsWire, a subsidiary of Dow Jones & Co, WSJ's parent company, is a good place for a budding journalist to start a journalism career. But, he adds, don't stay there too long.

"These publications [Dow Jones wire, Reuters, Associated Press] have a very stark style of writing and while they could be very good for honing reporting skills, a good journalist should also try to freelance somewhere where they can improve their writing skills," said Seib.