NEW YORK, July 19, 2012 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Wall Street Journal announced today its comprehensive multi-platform coverage plans for the 2012 Summer Games in London. Coverage will be integrated into all of the Journal's digital platforms – web, mobile, social, and live video – and span nearly all sections of the paper, including up to three additional Sports pages six days a week during the Games.
Overseen by Sports Bureau Chief Sam Walker (@SamWalkers), the Journal will have more than 20 reporters and editors on the ground covering the events, more than double the size of the team assigned to the Vancouver Olympics in 2010. London Bureau Chief Bruce Orwall (@BruceOrwall), senior sports editor Kevin Helliker, sports columnist Jason Gay (@JasonWSJ), senior sportswriter Matthew Futterman (@MattFutterman), and senior special writer Geoffrey Fowler (@geoffreyfowler) are among those who will be in London.
In addition to social media channels, the Journal's Olympics coverage will be highlighted in its London 2012 'stream,' a single page updated in real-time and reverse-chronologically aggregating all articles, live blogs, breaking news headlines, tweets, photos and videos from the Journal. The stream is available as a free, on-demand app easily saved to mobile device homescreens.
Additional highlights include:
- A special Journal Report previewing the Games in the U.S. and Europe editions of the paper (Monday, July 23). The lead story will reveal the results of the Journal's final medal predictions, which have been developed through months of research and analysis based on computer modeling and simulations overseen by leading sports statistician John Dewan. For the 2010 Vancouver Games, the Journal's predictions came within one medal of correctly predicting the U.S.'s total gold medal count, while also correctly predicting China's and Germany's exact gold medal tallies;
- WSJ Live will air live daily video updates throughout the Games. Segments will include interviews with special guests, a series of daily packages such as 'How Hard Can It Be?', in which sports reporter Stu Woo (@StuWoo) attempts to perform various Olympic sports, and more;
- Appearing daily will be a quantitative feature similar to "The Count," a popular statistical feature on the Journal's daily Sports page, as well as Babble & Squeak, an irreverent round-up of Olympic news, features, quotes, controversies and cultural happenings;
- A suite of interactive features, including a real-time medal tracker, schedules, athlete profiles, and more;
- Earlier this week, the Journal launched Medal Mentalist, a contest in which readers attempt to predict who will win gold, silver and bronze in 20 key events. The winner will receive a personalized Journal hedcut;
- Crowdsourced photos from around the world will be posted on the Journal's Instagram page (@WSJ);
- The Journal's London Olympics 2012 news app is available on Samsung's S2, S3 and Galaxy Note devices, and available for download from Samsung Apps.
Follow @WSJSports for the Journal's coverage on Twitter. For the Journal's full Olympics coverage, please visit: http://wsj.com/olympics
About The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal is the world's leading business publication with more than two million subscribers and is the largest U.S. newspaper by total paid circulation. The Wall Street Journal franchise comprises The Wall Street Journal, The Wall Street Journal Asia and The Wall Street Journal Europe. The Wall Street Journal Online at WSJ.com, the leading provider of business and financial news and analysis on the Web with more than one million digital subscribers and 34 million visitors per month worldwide. WSJ.com is the flagship site of The Wall Street Journal Digital Network, which also includes MarketWatch.com, Barrons.com, AllThingsD.com and SmartMoney.com. The Journal holds 34 Pulitzer Prizes for outstanding journalism, and, in 2012, was ranked No. 1 in BtoB's Media Power 50 for the 13th consecutive year.
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