Categories: OLD Media Moves

Confusion remains about WSJ byline rule

Jim Romenesko reports that Wall Street Journal management and the union that represents its business reporters are disagreeing about whether there is a limit on the number of names that can appear for a story’s byline.

Romenesko writes, “The Journal’s newsroom union recently asked management about the new rule, and was told there is no byline policy. The union’s response: Wrong – and we have memos to prove it!

“Here’s the union memo:

IAPE Directors in News Departments,
Many of you have asked about recent media reports, and in some cases, messages from managers, describing a new byline limit on WSJ stories. Yesterday, during our regular Labor/Management Committee meeting, we discussed the issue with management representatives from DJ Legal and HR departments.
Their response: no idea where this rumor came from. ‘We discussed this with News management, there is no new policy, there is no limit on bylines, and in fact, there is a story on page 1 today that has three bylines.’
Our rebuttal: that’s really strange, because we have copies of emails from managers explaining and reiterating the ‘new policy’ limiting bylines to two per story (though noting that exceptions are always possible).”

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.