The Wall Street Journal’s new environment blog

The sidebar announcement preempts the dropped jaws…

No, your computer isn’t misfiring. Welcome to a new Wall Street Journal blog, Environmental Capital. It replaces the Journal’s Energy Roundup blog. Environmental Capital will continue Energy Roundup’s tradition of tracking daily energy news. And it will go further, analyzing how the energy world, and all of business, is adapting to mounting concern about the planet.

With Jeff Ball at the helm, look for smart analysis on the sector. He’s a sharp reporter who’s been covering Detroit for years and I’m sure he’ll bring great insights to the forum. And Keith Johnson is nothing if not prolific, with a great filter for what’s news and what’s not.

Curious to see how the editorial side will cover (if at all) the new blog. I’ll post any reax in the days to come.

Wall Street Journal Exodus?

Ok, so while the following is a wholly non-scientific analysis, I thought it was interesting enough to comment on:

I am a member of LinkedIn, which is a myspace for yuppies. One of the nice features of the service is that it alerts you when your former colleauges or classmates join the network, so that you can reach out and “link” to them.

I also happen to be a former WSJ employee. Since I left the paper last year, I’ve been keen on staying in touch with my ex-colleagues there, and have used LinkedIn’s service to do so. Typically, I’ll get an alert every few days on my home page telling me that one or two, maybe up to four, WSJers have joind the network since I last logged on–which is typically every few days. This morning, FIFTY WSJers had become members in the last 48 hours.

Is something astir in the henhouse now that a fox has gotten the keys?