Categories: OLD Media Moves

MarketWatch.com lays off five editorial staffers

MarketWatch.com, a financial news site operated by Dow Jones & Co., laid off five staffers on Monday as part of a reorganization of its operations.

The positions cut include one union position and four nonunion positions, according to a representative for IAPE 1096, the union that represents business journalists at Dow Jones media operations.

Jeremy Olshan, the editor of MarketWatch.com, declined comment. A Dow Jones spokeswoman also declined comment.

The staff was informed during a conference call. Management emphasized that the changes were not a “reduction in payroll or overall budget” but “a refocusing of where we think the most gains are to be had,” said one staffer.

Dow Jones announced last month that it was making a buyout offer to staffers at The Wall Street Journal. But that offer did not extend to MarketWatch.com.

MarketWatch was started in 1997. Dow Jones acquired it in 2005 for $530 million.

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.