Inside the coming WSJ shakeup

Lachlan Cartwright of The Daily Beast writes about the pending shakeup at The Wall Street Journal under new editor in chief Emma Tucker.

Cartwright writes, “In an address to roughly 30 staffers in the San Francisco bureau last Tuesday, Tucker indicated she’s been unimpressed by the Journal’s current audience data and has begun a thorough content review to get a sense of which stories are being read and how, multiple attendees told us. Under the Tucker regime, expect to see less live-blogging in favor of broader news and analysis.

“Furthermore, sources told us, Tucker intends to slash the paper’s laborious and time-consuming internal bureaucracy required to publish stories on page one—a major source of irritation for reporters at the Journal, we’re told.

“The former Sunday Times editor was quizzed by staffers at the meeting about layoff rumors and while her response was “vague” Tucker did say she hopes cuts would be delayed a few months while she settles into the gig. Such murmurs come as the Journal quietly offers buyouts to staffers who’ve clocked 35 or more years of service, Confider has learned. Tucker was also grilled about diversity and said she thinks the Journal is doing a better job than her previous employer.”

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.