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WALL STREET JOURNAL
(Circulation 2.02 million)
Mr
The Prime Minister will call on the Editor, Mr Bob Bartley, and members of the Editorial Board at 3.45 pm on Monday 1 October. Major visited the Journal on 29 September 1989; Mr Hurd on 21 February 1990. A list of participants is attached.
The Wall Street Journal, with a daily circulation of just over 2 million, is the largest newspaper in the United States. With the possible exception of USA Today, it is the nearest thing to a national newspaper. The Journal produces a separate edition in Asia from Hong Kong and a European edition from Brussels which are editorially independent of New York.
Unsurpassed in its coverage of business and financial news, the Journal has been the premier newspaper for the American businessman for over two decades. It has sought to use its numerous bureaux in the US and abroad to improve its general news coverage, but this has been less successful and the paper fails to convey a full sense of world events. The Journal has seen its circulation slip in recent years to just over 2 million, partly because of increased competition from the New York Times, USA Today, and from Forbes Magazine. The Financial Times, too, has made a direct challenge by distributing a locally printed edition.
It strongly opposes
Editorially, the Journal is neo-conservative. protectionism and champions supply side economics. Its enthusiasm for Mrs Thatcher and her economic policies remains strong although reporting from the London bureau has been sharply critical of the UK's inflation and trade deficit. The Journal has robustly defended the community charge as "a worthy effort" by the Government to impose fiscal discipline and accountability" and to change a political culture "designed to produce waste and inefficiency". It also ran a long editorial enthusiastically supporting the PM's ideas set out her Aspen speech as "appropriate and relevant for the current moment". On Hong Kong, the Journal has been strongly critical of British policy arguing that HMG should greatly expand the numbers granted UK passports and speed up democratisation.
In Jan 1989 an op-ed by Sir Geoffrey Howe ("Sino-British Pact Preserves HK's Liberties") was published and both Mr Major and the Foreign Secretary explained our policies during their visits.
in
The Journal has strongly supported Britain on 1992 and European integration. It has remained solidly supportive of the PM's approach towards EMU and has endorsed her support for free trade and her criticisms of the Commission.
From the beginning of the Gulf crisis, the Journal has demanded a vigorous response.
It has praised Bush's "boldness" thus far and HMG's military deployments. The Journal has also urged the Administration "not to wait for ditherers" in the UN and NATO; to mount a preemptive military strike and if necessary to drive all the way to Baghdad and establish "a MacArthur-like regency". On East-West relations, the Journal has consistently criticised Gorbachev arguing that his reforms have been too little too late and that the only solution to Soviet economic problems was a rapid transition to a market economy.
British Information Services 28 September 1990