Categories: OLD Media Moves

Dow Jones union is going about this the wrong way

Forbes.com columnist Gary Weiss writes that the union that represents business journalists at Dow Jones & Co., the parent of The Wall Street Journal, Barron’s and Marketwatch, should not be bringing alternative bidders to News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch to the bargaining table.

Weiss wrote, “If IAPE wants to preserve the editorial independence of Dow Jones, it needs to oppose any buyer, not just any buyer whose name begins with ‘Rupert.’ This ‘anything but Rupert’ strategy could very easily backfire, when (not if, when) the post-takeover layoffs begin.

“If the person performing the layoffs is a supermarket or a vitamin or an Internet or a ladies-corset magnate, he could simply say, ‘I have to do this so that I could afford to save your blessed company from Rupert Murdoch.’

“Perhaps IAPE should take a train ride to Philadelphia one of these days, and think about what happens when amateurs buy newspapers. After the Philadelphia Inquirer was sold to local entrepreneurs, the aftermath included advertisements on the front page and plastering the name of a bank across the business section.”

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.

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John R says:
July 13, 2007 at 4:15 am
I do not think it is practical to express views by workers when the bidder is as powerful as Rupert Murdoch. With him -- anything is possible. I certainly agree with Gary Weiss about Lay-Off issue after take-over.
Besides - its more of principal of editorial integrity now than anything else.