What’s behind the WSJ dropping courtesy titles

Anne Branigin of The Washington Post explores the Wall Street Journal decision to drop courtesy titles in its stories.

Branigin writes, “No amount of tweaking could solve the fundamental problem of courtesy titles, several journalists said. They always draw attention to an arbitrary aspect of a person’s identity — such as whether they’re nonbinary, in the case of Mx. They also assume the subject would refer to themselves that way.

“‘Those titles put people in boxes,’ said Gallagher. ‘That may not be how they think about themselves, or how they expect other people to call them or refer to them. It’s a little bit disingenuous to sources, and especially when those sources are everyday people.’

“Most publications ultimately decided the easiest solution to the problem was to eliminate courtesy titles, with the Journal belatedly joining them this week. Now, the Gray Lady is nearly the last Ms. standing.”

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.