More WSJ journalists upset about jet story

Women’s Wear Daily broke the story late last year that a number of reporters at The Wall Street Journal were upset about a story about timeshare jets that ran next to the ads of some companies in the story, and now Howard Kurtz of the Washington Post has more.

Kurtz wrote, “Some Journal staffers, meanwhile, are quite upset over an incident last month in which advertisers were told in advance that the paper planned a story on jets that rent time to clients, allowing the handful of companies in the field to buy ad space in the Personal Journal section.

“Insiders say that Hilary Stout, the section’s editor, objected to the advertisers’ involvement and declined to assign the story, and that travel columnist Scott McCartney refused the assignment after a jet company called him to ask about the story. Another reporter was drafted and wrote a balanced piece.

“[Managing editor Paul] Steiger says the story — which was first noted by Women’s Wear Daily — was ‘much too narrow’ for advertisers to have been notified in advance, as opposed to a story or package on a larger industry. Such arrangements, he says, could ‘create confusion and make people think the story might be an advertorial. . . . I’m glad that some reporters raised questions about it.’ He says the paper will be ‘more diligent’ about what it tells advertisers in advance.”

Read more here.