Categories: OLD Media Moves

Murdoch says no plans to cut WSJ workforce

News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch stated on an earnings conference call Tuesday that there are no plans to cut the Wall Street Journal workforce after he completes his acquisition of its parent company, Dow Jones & Co.

Gillian Wee of Bloomberg wrote, “Murdoch said on the call today that the company plans to expand the Journal’s non-business coverage to increase distribution in Europe and Asia and to compete with the New York Times. He said there are no plans to cut Dow Jones’s workforce.

“Pairing Dow Jones ‘with the marketing power and global reach of News Corp. will vastly enhance its brand and extend its reach,’ Murdoch said of the publisher. He also said he plans to sell Dow Jones’s local newspapers ‘very quickly,’ without elaborating.

“The purchase of Dow Jones, expected to be completed in the calendar fourth quarter, may bolster News Corp.’s planned financial news channel. The Fox Business Network will start broadcasting on Oct. 15, News Corp. said last month.

“‘They may need to use their vast resources around the world to help the Journal become a more general news gathering organization,” said Richard Dorfman, managing director at Richard Alan Inc., an investment company in New York. ‘Murdoch recognizes the real home run to be his is the Internet. It’s why they put a new media type valuation on the Journal.'”

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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.