Categories: OLD Media Moves

Dow Jones business journalists approve new contract

Business reporters at Dow Jones & Co. properties such as The Wall Street Journal, Barron’s and Marketwatch have approved a new contract negotiated with the union.

Here is the text of the e-mail sent to members:

The IAPE Election Committee has been informed by TrueBallot Inc. that a majority of eligible voters have voted to accept the Dow Jones contract offer. The Committee declares the Dow Jones contract ratified.

Of 1,402 eligible voters, 921 cast ballots for a return rate of 65.69%.

831 — or 90.23% — voted “Yes, I accept the contract offer.”

90 — 9.77% — voted “No, I reject the contract offer.”

The new contract gives the journalists a 3 percent raise each year, including one retroactive to Feb. 1 of this year. If they had not approved the contract by Oct. 15, the raise would have been 2.75 percent for this year, 3 percent for the year beginning Feb. 1, 2008,Â and 2.75 for the year beginning Feb. 1, 2009.

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.