Poll: Would you read a Chicago edition of the Wall Street Journal?

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If the rumors are to be believed, the New York Times won’t be the only East Coast paper setting up a local edition in Chicago in the near future. An article from Bloomberg News reports that the News Corp.-owned Wall Street Journal is “considering adding local metro-area coverage” in Chicago as well as in Los Angeles, along with a “planned reporting section on New York.”

Les Hinton, chief executive officer of Dow Jones & Co., told employees in a meeting yesterday that the newspaper was contemplating additional coverage in the California and Illinois cities, according to [two people familiar with the company’s thinking].

The newspaper, bought as part of New York-based News Corp.’s acquisition of Dow Jones in December 2007, debuted a once-weekly San Francisco Bay-area edition last week.

Hinton didn’t discuss further details of the possible sections, said the people.

via Wall Street Journal Studies Added L.A., Chicago News (Update1) – Bloomberg.com.

(Interesting side note: As any Sun-Times devotee knows, News Corp. Emperor Rupert Murdoch’s last venture into Chicago wasn’t without its troubles — when he bought the paper in 1984, superstar columnist Mike Royko quit in protest because he refused to work for the “alien” as he called him. Murdoch eventually sold the paper, but I wonder if the present deal means Murdoch’s gotten over the insult?)

With the New York Times likewise setting up local coverage through the forthcoming Chicago News Cooperative set to launch Nov. 20, and both papers now invested in local San Francisco editions, do we have a full-on cross-country paper race on our hands? And, more importantly, would you read it?

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