Wall Street Journal eyes tech start-ups

The Wall Street Journal is to target the technology sector through hosting a pop-up café in London’s Tech City next month.

Wall Street Journal

The leading business publication, which is part of News Corp, will feature a series of events hosted by its technology editors in the Book Club venue in Shoreditch.

The events will include speakers from the likes of Google, Facebook, Telefonica and Berg, who will take part in a range of panel discussions on topics such as start-up success, venture capital funding, privacy policy and the role of social media in customer interaction.

The publication hopes to raise the profile of its technological output and increase engagement between its team and the audience.

Ben Rooney, the journal’s European technology editor, says: “Our Tech Europe blog has been helping tell Europe’s tech story for almost two years now, and our first ever Tech Café will allow us to bring all this coverage to a wider audience. I hope we’ll have some thought-provoking, engaging and even controversial discussion on some of the big topics in tech.”

The so-called “Silicon Roundabout” in Old Street and the surrounding areas has been the home of many new tech start-ups, following attempts by the Coalition Government to turn the area into a world-leading technological city.

A report earlier this year by the think-tank Demos estimated that there were 3,200 firms and over 48,000 jobs in the area.

In July, Amazon announced it was to open a open a research and development hub in the area to build new digital TV and film services as it looks to better compete with rivals such as Netflix and Sky’s Now TV. It joined companies such as Google, Facebook, Intel and Vodafone, which have also invested in the area.

News Corp confirmed in June that it is to split its publishing and entertainment arms. It said the new global publishing company “would have the opportunity to leverage its trusted brands for innovation and value creation across all traditional and digital platforms”.

The Wall Street Journal has more than 2 million subscribers worldwide. Its website has more than 1 million digital subscribers and 34 million visitors per month worldwide.

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