Now that Rupert Murdoch has moved his top guys into place to remake the Wall Street Journal, veterans at the paper who are familiar with the dithering of their previous corporate bosses can’t help marveling at his speed, decisiveness and personal involvement. “We know that’s his M.O., but it’s amazing to see,” one Dow Jones exec is quoted as saying in today’s New York Times. Meanwhile, nervous WSJ reporters and editors were heartened by the wisdom of Rupe’s one-word decision to reject at least one plan to remake the paper. It circulated in the newsroom as Design Proposal No. 4.
(Just kidding, of course. The graphic is part of a 2002 ad campaign that introduced a WSJ redesign when color was added to Page One. To build suspense — and to reassure readers that the Journal wasn’t going to change character — fake mockups appeared in advertisements showing rejected designs.)
