The Shorter-Form Wall Street Journal

The Wall Street Journal’s page one has long been the standard-bearer for business writing and reporting, at least for newspapers. It took news and turned it into narrative nonfiction, everyday, twice a day, for decades. But Rupert Murdoch made it no secret that he disdained the Journal’s page-one tradition of long-form journalism, and it’s been de-emphasized under his ownership. Murdoch took over at the end of 2007, defenestrated Marcus Brauchli four months later, and these stories have plunged a stunning 70 percent in the Murdoch era.