diff --git a/requirements-swh-journal.txt b/requirements-swh-journal.txt
new file mode 100644
--- /dev/null
+++ b/requirements-swh-journal.txt
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+swh.journal >= 0.0.17
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -56,8 +56,10 @@
     setup_requires=['vcversioner'],
     install_requires=parse_requirements() + parse_requirements('swh'),
     extras_require={
-        'testing': parse_requirements('test'),
+        'testing': (parse_requirements('test') +
+                    parse_requirements('swh-journal')),
         'schemata': ['SQLAlchemy'],
+        'journal': parse_requirements('swh-journal'),
     },
     vcversioner={},
     include_package_data=True,
diff --git a/swh/storage/journal_writer.py b/swh/storage/journal_writer.py
--- a/swh/storage/journal_writer.py
+++ b/swh/storage/journal_writer.py
@@ -3,38 +3,5 @@
 # License: GNU General Public License version 3, or any later version
 # See top-level LICENSE file for more information
 
-import copy
-from multiprocessing import Manager
-
-
-from swh.model.model import BaseModel
-
-
-class InMemoryJournalWriter:
-    def __init__(self):
-        # Share the list of objects across processes, for RemoteAPI tests.
-        self.manager = Manager()
-        self.objects = self.manager.list()
-
-    def write_addition(self, object_type, object_):
-        if isinstance(object_, BaseModel):
-            object_ = object_.to_dict()
-        self.objects.append((object_type, copy.deepcopy(object_)))
-
-    write_update = write_addition
-
-    def write_additions(self, object_type, objects):
-        for object_ in objects:
-            self.write_addition(object_type, object_)
-
-
-def get_journal_writer(cls, args={}):
-    if cls == 'inmemory':
-        JournalWriter = InMemoryJournalWriter
-    elif cls == 'kafka':
-        from swh.journal.direct_writer import DirectKafkaWriter \
-            as JournalWriter
-    else:
-        raise ValueError('Unknown storage class `%s`' % cls)
-
-    return JournalWriter(**args)
+# for bw compat
+from swh.journal.writer import get_journal_writer  # noqa
diff --git a/swh/storage/storage.py b/swh/storage/storage.py
--- a/swh/storage/storage.py
+++ b/swh/storage/storage.py
@@ -21,11 +21,14 @@
 from .db import Db
 from .exc import StorageDBError
 from .algos import diff
-from .journal_writer import get_journal_writer
 
 from swh.model.hashutil import ALGORITHMS, hash_to_bytes
 from swh.objstorage import get_objstorage
 from swh.objstorage.exc import ObjNotFoundError
+try:
+    from swh.journal.writer import get_journal_writer
+except ImportError:
+    get_journal_writer = None
 
 
 # Max block size of contents to return
@@ -62,6 +65,10 @@
 
         self.objstorage = get_objstorage(**objstorage)
         if journal_writer:
+            if get_journal_writer is None:
+                raise EnvironmentError(
+                    'You need the swh.journal package to use the '
+                    'journal_writer feature')
             self.journal_writer = get_journal_writer(**journal_writer)
         else:
             self.journal_writer = None