The New York Post’s Keith Kelly states in this morning’s paper that some of the people leaving the Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones are those that were close to former publisher Karen Elliott House, who left recently along with husband CEO Peter Kann.
Kelly reports: “Most people are chalking up some of the high-level departures at Dow Jones to ‘House cleaning’ as in purging some of the allies of Karen Elliott House, who technically ended her reign as publisher of the Wall Street Journal yesterday.
“She announced her retirement in January when her husband Peter Kann was booted as CEO of WSJ’s parent Dow Jones Co. and replaced by Richard Zannino.
“The most obvious target of the house cleaning was Penelope Abernathy, the senior vice president, international at the Journal.
“Said Abernathy, reached yesterday: ‘I worked with Karen. I admired what she did and I’m a staunch believer that did a lot of good for the company.’
“Also let go in a 20-person downsizing was Michael Sheehan, the WSJ’s senior veep of circulation and Dan Austin, a 36-year veteran who had been heading the company’s community newspapers.”
