Wall Street Journal to Start Weekend Edition

For legions of business executives, the Wall Street Journal is essential reading first thing every weekday morning. But will they read it on Saturdays?

Senior executives at the Journal’s publisher, Dow Jones & Co., are betting they will. Starting Sept. 17, the newspaper will start publishing a “Weekend Edition” on Saturdays, with business news and expanded coverage of personal finance, leisure activities and the arts.

For the Journal, the Saturday edition represents an opportunity to pull in more consumer advertising and decrease its dependence on financial and technology advertising, which have been in a deep and prolonged slump. The Journal’s overall ad volume has declined every year since 2001 and is down 6.3% year to date through July.