Wall Street Journal Launches New Local-Language Site in Asia

NEW YORK —The Wall Street Journal has expanded its reach in Asia with the launch of an Indonesia website and BlackBerry app. This closely follows the Journal’s launch of a local-language edition in Korea, which surpassed six million page views in its first two weeks. Both site launches mark key milestones in The Wall Street Journal’s ambition to deliver unrivalled quality content to every corner of the world.

There are now 11 Wall Street Journal sites in eight languages, including German, Portuguese, Spanish, Chinese and Japanese, providing advertisers a uniquely global one-stop-shop solution to reach The Journal’s influential audience worldwide. International traffic has increased from 15% of The Wall Street Journal’s total traffic in 2008 to 35% so far this year, and visitors have more than doubled over the past five years.

“We believe that our macro-economic and business news, one of our specialties, has real value to people in different countries and cultures,” says Lex Fenwick, chief executive officer of Dow Jones & Company and publisher of The Wall Street Journal. “We have a vision of re-purposing our content in many different languages, allowing us to deliver the breadth and depth of the Journal’s news and analysis to readers worldwide. We are building a truly global audience of key influencers that advertising customers can reach in a uniquely seamless and global way.”

To support the expansion in Indonesia, The Wall Street Journal has strengthened its editorial team in Jakarta with the addition of Patrick McDowell as Southeast Asia bureau chief for The Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones Newswires. Armando Siahaan also joins from BeritaSatu Media Holdings where he headed digital media for one of Indonesia’s largest media groups. Mr. Siahaan will edit the Bahasa Indonesia website.