The Wall Street Journal’s top editors have been telling staff about a new policy: No more than three bylines on stories, and no taglines.
The union that represents reporters at The Journal issued the following:
One editor apparently referred to this new “policy” as “non-negotiable.”
They must be new here.
Bylines and taglines are long-accepted practices in our newsrooms. IAPE considers them forms of recognition, perhaps even compensation for our union-represented News staff. Managers certainly aren’t shy about referring to bylines during performance evaluation and disciplinary meetings. A Journal byline is deserved credit for a job well done. Byline and tagline limits will reduce transparency about who and how many journalists contributed to work we are proud of. Members are also concerned about how the limits could undermine newsroom collaboration, as management’s message discourages reporters from helping each other.
It’s as if management turned to AI with the question, what’s a way to further diminish newsroom morale while providing no economic or journalistic benefit to the company? Answer: gratuitously take from rank-and-file workers a small but long-established form of recognition that costs the company nothing.
Read more here.
