Dow Jones and the Wall Street Journal:
a new purpose for a more challenging world
Dow Jones, the owner of the Wall Street Journal, needed a new purpose statement that reflected its status as a provider of reliable information in a world of fake news and social media echo chambers.
This need had, in part, been prompted by an annual employee survey that had revealed a desire for greater clarity on where the company was going.
But the leadership team also sensed that accurate information, facts, truth — and, perhaps, democracy itself — had never been more under attack. Countering these forces through Dow Jones’s rigorous journalism and data analysis had never felt more urgent.
To uncover their purpose statement, the exec team spent two days brainstorming at an offsite, with a member of the Broom & Moon team listening in.
Common themes that cropped up included the “fearless journalism” for which the Wall Street Journal is renowned. The team also discussed the urgent need to take both Dow Jones’s journalism and its business data services to wider audiences — because the more people Dow Jones could help make decisions based on facts, the greater its impact.
Based on everything we heard, we articulated Dow Jones’s purpose in a simple, powerful statement:
The solution:
a company-wide conversation around a simple, powerful purpose statement
To give people the facts they need in an age of misinformation.
The exec team launched the new purpose at a series of high-energy roadshows at locations in Europe, Asia and the Americas.
To embed the purpose into people’s working lives, each part of the business was encouraged to continue the conversation about it after the roadshows. Teams were encouraged to create their own “plan on a page”: a summary of what they would do to ensure Dow Jones continued to fulfil its purpose.
The outcome:
renewed energy in the fight against fake news
Employees were inspired by what they’d heard at the roadshows. In a post-event survey, with 840 responses:
87% said they felt certain they could accurately describe Dow Jones’s purpose
86% said they felt excited about Dow Jones’s future
This response from one attendee captures the excitement employees felt:
“This was the first time hearing from/seeing the ExCo in one room with a unified vision and purpose…was incredibly impactful and motivating.”
“The Broom & Moon team were quickly able to understand our company and the industry challenges that required us to be clear about our purpose. They helped us uncover our “why”, distil it into simple, compelling words that everyone was able to get behind, and then gave us strategies for bringing that purpose to life.”
William Lewis
Publisher & CEO
The Washington Post