Does Wall Street Journal change headlines for different demographics? Fact Check

A claim spreading online asserts that two different editions of The Wall Street Journal have different and opposing headlines about President Trump because they are intended to influence different demographics or markets.

FALSE

Examples of the image and captions attached to it can be seen below.

Check out the VERY different Wall Street Journal headlines for the same #Trump story in different markets…

Depending on where you live the media will PLAY TO WHAT YOU WANT TO HEAR! BIASED MEDIA THAT IS!

While the image above does indeed show two editions of The Wall Street Journal that were published on the same day, they are not intended for different markets or demographics.

In fact, they are published at different times of the day, with the later edition reporting on a story that had occurred after the earlier edition was published. This is a normal practise within the media industry.

The Wall Street Journal does not release different papers or headlines for different locations, markets or demographics.

In this particular instance, the image on the left with the headline “Trump softens his tone” was published in the morning and referenced an amicable discussion Trump had had with Mexican president Enrique Pena Nieto. Later in the day, President Trump gave a tougher speech to a crowd where he asserted that Mexico would pay for the border wall between the United States and Mexico, and the front page story changed to “Trump talks tough on Wall”.

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Not only did the front page headline change, but the story underneath also changed to reflect the subsequent speech that Trump had given.

Different revisions are typically highlighted someone on the paper’s front page. In the case of The Wall Street Journal, a different number of stars appear on the masthead on the right hand side that indicates which revision of the paper it is.

As such, the claim that different editions are circulated for different markets, locations or demographics is false.