'WSJ' to produce new luxury real-estate porn section called 'Mansion'
The Wall Street Journal.
11:32 am Oct. 2, 2012
The Wall Street Journal today unveiled plans for a new weekly section covering the global real estate market, which will debut on Friday.
The section, called "Mansion," will "offer in-depth stories from a global team of journalists," according to a press release, "including property-focused coverage with industry statistics and a focus on high-end financing; luxury real estate topics from iconic buildings and renovations to investments associated with those projects; distinctive neighborhoods and properties around the world; unique views from select residences and more."
"Mansion" brings a glitzy international edge to The Journal's existing real estate pages, which tend to emphasize explaining the numbers behind both residential and commercial transactions nationwide, though "Friday Journal" has included some luxury coverage. Launch advertisers include Coldwell Banker, New York Design Center, Prudential Douglas Elliman Real Estate, Related Companies and Sotheby's International.
"Today's consumers are demanding a single source for all the latest intelligence on the world's luxury real estate markets," said Wendy Purvey, chief marketing officer of Sotheby's International, a luxury real-estate firm, in a statement provided by the Journal.
The section has been in development since the summer. The paper hired "from within" its parent company, Dow Jones, to assemble an editorial staff of 12, with one more to be added overseas, according to a spokesperson, and will use contributions from other Dow Jones and Journal sections too. It will be edited by Emily Gitter, formerly deputy editor of "Friday Journal," which is being renamed "Arena."
Over the past few years, as it has begun to skew more general-interest, The Journal has been adding new stand-alones to its print edition, such as a lifestyle component called "Off Duty," an opinion section called "Review" and a New York metro section that set out to do battle with The New York Times' local coverage.
As for the name of its latest niche foray, "We all like to think of our home as a mansion, even if it is a humble abode," said Journal managing editor Robert Thomson, "and we all have the license to aspire, so we have created Mansion to be the home of both aspiration and real-estate realization."
