BusinessWeek executive editor expects Murdoch to get WSJ

BusinessWeek executive editor John Byrne expects News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch to be successful in his bid to acquire Dow Jones & Co., the parent of The Wall Street Journal, writes Dan Caterinicchia of the Associated Press. Caterinicchia wrote, “Journal publisher Gordon Crovitz, sitting on stage with BusinessWeek’s John Byrne, refused to comment other than […]

SEC says couple bought Dow Jones stock using inside info

The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged two Hong Kong residents with purchasing $15 million worth of Dow Jones & Co. stock using inside information before it was disclosed the company had received an offer to be bought for $5 billion by News Corp., according to an AP story. Larry Neumeister wrote, “The lawsuit in […]

Paper cuts stock listings, hears from readers

The Bristol Herald Courier, the paper on the Virginia/Tennessee border, cut its stock listings last week and switched to the AP’s Money & Markets page, and heard from a number of readers, wrote managing editor Jeff Foster. Now, it’s considered making changes to appease those readers. Foster wrote, “The Associated Press launched this new Money […]

Former ME of biz paper now heads Idaho's Democrats

John Foster, who until recently was the managing editor of the Idaho Business Review, has been named the executive director of the Idaho Democratic Party, according to an AP story. The AP story stated, “John Foster, 33, succeeds Maria Weeg, who took over as party director in Arizona earlier this month. “Foster, who took a […]

Philly paper defends decision to let bank sponsor biz column

The publisher and the editor of the Philadelphia Inquirer defended their decision to allow a local bank to sponsor a column in the business section, saying that the bank will have no influence on the content, according to an Associated Press story. Deborah Yao wrote, “[Editor Bill] Marimow contended that the column can’t be compared […]

Coverage of Citigroup leaves readers unsure what's going on

Hal Morris, writing on his Grumpy Editor blog, wonders whether editors writing the headlines for the stories about the Wednesday announcement by Citigroup that it’s restructuring really understand what they’re writing headlines about. Morris wrote, “The headline in yesterday’s The Wall Street Journal: ‘Citigroup Starts Handing Out Pink Slips in Its Restructuring.’ Then the headline […]

Suburban Philly paper cuts stock listings

The Bucks County Courier Times is cutting its stock listings in favor of the AP’s Money & Markets page, according to a story in Sunday’s paper. Rose Venditti McIver wrote, “Most of our agate (the small type) listings will remain on the four days we run the Money & Markets package. We’ll run 1,024 listings […]

Why AP's proxy stories use different compensation figures

Associated Press business columnist Rachel Beck goes a long way Friday in explaining why the wire service has been using numbers when writing about executive compensation that differ greatly than the “total compensation” figures reported by companies in their proxy statements. Beck’s column isn’t written for the purpose of explaining why the numbers in AP […]

Media confusing public with compensation stories

Dominic Jones, writing on his IRWebReport blog, argues that the business media, particularly the Associated Press biz desk, is confusing readers by reporting executive compensation numbers that are different than what is reported in proxies. Jones wrote, “Take the Associated Press (AP), the most widely read news service in America, as an example. It has […]

Making a mountain out of a mole hill

TheDeal.com executive editor Yvette Kantrow has a critique of the New York Times’ recent coverage of the subprime mortgage lending industry issues, noting that criticism of one analyst by reporter Gretchen Morgenson may be a bit overblown. Kantrow wrote, “The New York Post Tuesday reported Bear’s contention that Morgenson’s characterization of Coren’s research ‘was a […]