How WSJ mismanagement put Gershkovich at risk

Evan Gershkovich

Maxwell Tani of Semafor writes about how a complicated if mundane Wall Street Journal management mess in Moscow and security decisions in New York may have put reporter Evan Gershkovich at risk.

Tani writes, “Journal veterans who spoke to Semafor believe the Journal was naive in three ways.

“First, Yekaterinburg isn’t a normal Russian city. It is the longtime heart of Russian industry and an important center of military production. An American reporter’s visit — even in peacetime — would be the rough equivalent of a Russian journalist bringing her notebook to nose around Raytheon’s Arizona missile factory or a Chinese reporter posting up in Fort Meade.

“Second, some at the Journal felt that a focus on following the letter of Russian law offered little protection from the country’s security services, not least in wartime.

“And finally, they felt the managers had ignored one of the so-called Moscow rules: never assume that the Russians don’t know exactly what you’re doing.”

Read more here.

Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.