Decision is "trash or slash," say Dow Jones workers

Richard Perez-Pena of The New York Times writes for Thursday’s paper that for many Wall Street Journal journalists, the decision between whether its parent company Dow Jones & Co. is sold to News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch or a joint bid by CNBC parent General Electric Co. and Financial Times parent Pearson comes down to “trash or slash.”

The choice, he said, is whether Murdoch will come in and apply his brand of sensational journalism to the paper, or GE/Pearson buy the company and lay off journalists who are duplicitous at an operation that owns The Journal, CNBC and the Financial Times, not to mention Barron’s, Marketwatch and Dow Jones Newswires.

Perez-Pena wrote, “‘If you put a gun to my head, I’d take Murdoch over G.E.-Pearson,’ said a senior editor at The Journal who declined to be identified because the deal is not complete. This editor reasoned that the G.E.-Pearson deal would mean immediate cuts and deteriorating quality, while a Bancroft family deal struck with Mr. Murdoch might hold off fundamental change for a few years.”

Later, Perez-Pena added, “‘I think our history shows that we value and nurture the things that make our acquisitions unique, and we don’t slash and burn,’ said a G. E. executive who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter. ‘But obviously, a lot of the strategic value in this would be in consolidation.'”

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