News & Culture

As a pretty busy person with not much time to read, I was excited to see that there was an audio version of the WSJ available. I download these issues to my PDA and listen to them in the car on the way to work or while taking my moring walk. In general I've liked the subscription but I'm getting a little frustrated with the fact that it often spends way too much time on "human interest" articles rather than on business related topics. For example, this morning's edition spent 25% of the entire program's 1-hour length on a story about a child with cancer. Although it was an interesting story and worthy of telling, it's not the reason that I subscribe to this program. I can get that type of news from other sources. It also spends too much time on national and world events. Yes, these events often have a business impact, but I can get that information from dozens of other sources. I need a program that is going to digest and give me the best of what is going on in the business world.

I would also recommend that they not always read entire articles but maybe the first half of them. If what I've heard piques my interest, I can then go to the paper or on-line editions for more complete coverage. I would rather get 10 partial articles than 5 complete articles. The only time I'd like to hear the entire article is when it is really crucial and/or has widespread business impact. I don't want to hear an entire article on Philadelphia's tax situation (again, from this morning's edition).

Overall, it's an OK subscription and I will probably keep ordering it for another month or two. But if it doesn't start improving, I may start looking for other sources of getting my business information.