Business school students gain online access to Wall Street Journal

As media organizations continue to shift from paper to online, the importance of instant access to news has become paramount, especially for members of the centennial generation.

To keep students updated on the latest happenings in the business world, officials of the Robins School of Business and The Wall Street Journal have reached a deal to provide the online version of the newspaper to students for free, starting this semester.

Nancy Bagranoff, dean of the business school, said the three members of the business school's staff who had led the effort to get online access for students were: Student Services Coordinator Laura Thorpe, business manager Pat Macaulay and Corey Janecky, director of operations and technology. The members of the team handled various student, financial and technological aspects of the implementation, which had been a difficult process but worth the hassle to provide such business news access that would liven and better inform class discussions, Bagranoff said.

"The Wall Street Journal presented us with an analysis showing that what we were spending on print copy for a small number of students concentrating in finance would equate to digital access for all Robins School students," Bagranoff said. "I found this compelling and we made a decision to move forward."

Although some business school students had access to print copies of The Wall Street Journal before this new deal, the implementation of online access will make things easier, said Kate Treiber, a senior business major.

"Hard copies have been located in the finance computer lab or trading floor, in a separate location from The New York Times and USA Today," Treiber said. "This made it seem like it was more easily accessible for finance students since they're the ones spending time in there."

Students have often read hard copies of The Wall Street Journal in the business school lobby between classes, but business students on the whole do not make good enough use of the newspaper as a resource, Treiber said. Although some professors recommend reading The Wall Street Journal, it is rarely required, said Kevin McCall, a senior business major.

McCall said that he and some of his friends in the business school had not had much interest in reading the publication for class or otherwise, and that this new access would probably not spur him to read it more. On the other hand, Treiber said that she and some of her peers were excited about this new accessibility, because she had taken classes in which reading The Wall Street Journal was necessary for some assignments.

"In my business ethics class, taught by [Porcher] Taylor, students do a presentation in which they pick a WSJ article, connect it to what we learned in class and present the article to the class," Treiber said. "I think the Journal should be used more. Many interviewers ask about current events during interviews, and they like when students read it."

Treiber said that she still had problems with the new accessibility program, specifically that students in their first three semesters at Richmond would not qualify for access because they would not yet have had an opportunity to apply to the business school as a major or minor.

Current business majors have already received an e-mail set up by Macaulay with the details on how to create their log-in and password for their personal accounts on The Wall Street Journal website, Macaulay said.

Contact reporter Zak Kerr at zak.kerr@richmond.edu