Categories: OLD Media Moves

IBM layoffs underplayed in WSJ

Hal Morris writes on his GrumpyEditor.com blog that The Wall Street Journal underplayed the layoffs at IBM when it tucked the news inside last Thursday.

Morris wrote, “Pretend you are CEO of XYZ Widgets Corp., a worldwide technology operation, and your company announces 1,500 additional layoffs on top of an equal number earlier in the month.

“How would The Wall Street Journal treat the story?

“Chances are it would be a rather large piece with comments from analysts and perhaps some of the high-tech staffers being shown the door.

“But if your company happens to be IBM Corp. with the same number of people laid off, it gets only one paragraph tucked away in the middle of the ‘In Brief’ column on page A10, notes Grumpy Editor.Â That was the case in last Thursdayâ€™s issue.”

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.