OLD Media Moves

Cuts coming at Wall Street Journal

January 30, 2009

Jeff Bercovici of Conde Nast Portfolio reports Friday that newsroom cuts are expected next week at The Wall Street Journal.

Bercovici writes, “According to multiple sources within and close to the Journal, the newsroom is due to undergo another round of personnel cuts late next week. It’s unclear exactly how many employees will be affected, but two sources put the number of people being targeted at 50. (If, as seems likely, that is the number of people on the list to be offered buyouts, then the actual number of jobs eliminated could be substantially lower.)

“It’s also rumored that there will be parallel cuts at Dow Jones Newswires, and that one or more Journal bureaus may be eliminated as part of the cutbacks. A Dow Jones spokeswoman declined to comment.

“Since Rupert Murdoch took over Dow Jones at the end of 2007, the Journal has been relatively exempt from the wave of downsizing that has swept the newspaper industry. The exception was last summer when the paper eliminated 50 copy editing jobs in South Brunswick, N.J., and handed out a passel of exit packages. (Some of the copy desk jobs were re-created in Manhattan.)”

Read more here.

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