Categories: OLD Media Moves

Head of Dow Jones Digital is out

Dow Jones & Co., the parent of The Wall Street Journal, has removed its head of digital, Michael Rolnick, amid a strategy shakeup that has been unfolding over the past month, Joe Pompeo of Capital has learned.

Pompeo writes, “A Silicon Valley veteran hired by Fenwick in August 2013, Rolnick’s job was to increase digital and mobile readership, a role in which he oversaw teams focused on business development, digital circulation, audience engagement and analytics. During his brief tenure, the company explored changes to The Journal‘s online paywall and struck deals to put its content on third-party networks such as the Google Play Newsstand.

“Since Rolnick’s Feb. 12 departure, his teams have been redeployed under other Dow Jones executives, including Ed Roussel, head of consumer and institutional products, and Christina Komporlis, who oversees print circulation. One insider familiar with the decision said the goal was to streamline print and digital circulation.

“Rolnick declined to comment, as did a spokesperson for Dow Jones.

“Sources cautioned against drawing any conclusions about Rolnick’s firing insofar as what it might suggest about Lewis’ digital consumer strategy, which Dow Jones plans to ‘expand’ and ‘invest in,’ Lewis told employees recently in a memo.”

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.

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