As has been rumored for a long time, Rupert Murdoch's Wall Street Journal is in the final stages of prepping a New York–specific newsroom, in anticipation of a section launch sometime next year. The team will focus on local news, treating this new department like the Bay Area edition that is also in the works. Journal editors have already started trying to poach journalists from rival publications, hoping to fill the staff with about a dozen experienced reporters and editors. A source at the paper says that once it gets its feet on the ground, the New York bureau is expected to expand. This is part of Murdoch's overall strategy to make the former business paper more of a general-interest broadsheet. This new department will compete directly with the Times' formidable "Metro" team (with its 50 reporters). We understand why they're having to poach reporters from elsewhere — we can't imagine anyone who already works at the Journal to be regularly willing to even stick their toes in places like the police shack. Or Albany. Shudder.

Wall Street Journal to Add a New York Report [NYT]