The Wall Street Journal launched a Bay Area edition today, three weeks after the NY Times started its own Bay Area section.

The Journal had been planning a launch in December or January. But after the Times announced its plans, the Journal moved up its start date. The section will appear once a week on Thursdays for the paper’s 92,000 Bay Area subscribers.

The Journal section carried four stories and ads from The Commonwealth Club, Mechanics Bank and Chevron. Stories included U.S. Attorney Joe Russoniello’s effort to fight white-collar crime, a Q&A with Google’s Eric Schmidt, a report on rising home sales in Atherton, new museums in the Haight and a review of The Little Skillet, a takeout chicken-and-waffle joint in SF’s SOMA neighborhood. It’s “one of the hottest spots for lunch in San Francisco among start-up hipsters at Twitter Inc and other Internet firms,” writes Ben Worthen.

Both the Times and Journal are planning to start local editions in Chicago, and presumably will go on to other cities if the concept succeeds.