Copyright © 1997 by the Boston Phoenix, Inc. All rights reserved.

This Just In: Media

The Wall Street Journal goes local

By Dan Kennedy

The Wall Street Journal's New England edition arrived Wednesday with neither a bang nor a whimper. Judging from its premiere, the four-page weekly supplement will hardly revolutionize local-business journalism. But it's solid and authoritative, and should prove to be an unforgiving competitor anytime complacency sets in at the Boston Globe, the Boston Herald, or the Boston Business Journal.

With a staff of five, the "New England Journal" is outgunned not just by the Globe (two dozen business reporters) but even by the Herald (seven). But 38-year-old Caleb Solomon, who edits the new project after two years of heading up the "Texas Journal," says his team has the luxury of focusing on longer-term trend stories.

"If Fidelity burps yesterday, we don't have to write that," he says.

The gem of Wednesday's debut is a piece by former Herald staffer Jeffrey Krasner on the failure of Boston Edison and General Motors to deliver on their much-hyped plan to make Boston a leading electric-vehicle center.

But there's an overemphasis on stories from elsewhere in New England, including one by Solomon on conservation in the North Country and another by former Globe staffer Shirley Leung on plans to launch a commuter-airline service in Connecticut.

No doubt Solomon is emulating the geographically diverse focus of the Journal's regional editions in Texas, California, Florida, and the Southeast. That may not work here. As Globe business editor Larry Edelman notes, "Boston is the center of the universe when it comes to business in New England."