Rupert Murdoch's media concern News Corporation is planning to launch a German-language online version of the Wall Street Journal at the beginning of December, according to an article published in the Handelsblatt newspaper.

News Corp plans to invest several million euros to set up the online portal, which will operate under the 'WSJ.de' domain name. It will mainly cover international business news and will be accessible for free – unlike the US version.

The company has no plans to publish a print version of the Wall Street Journal in German, Handelsblatt reported.

The Dusseldorf-based Handeslblatt is considered a reliable source in this context – even though its website will compete directly with the new WSJ portal. It has worked in close cooperation with the 'Wall Street Journal' and its parent group, Dow Jones, for over 10 years. It entered the agreement to fend off increased competition from Financial Times Deutschland at the time.

The address 'WSJ.de' used to belong to the homepage of the 'Württembergische Sportjugend', the youth section of the Baden-Württemberg's sports federation. Web users who tried to access the address on Wednesday were redirected to a site on under the federation's main domain 'WLSB.de'.

Author: Nina Haase (Reuters, dapd)
Editor: Sam Edmonds