Staff numbers up, company coverage down at WSJ

Anick Jesdanun of the Associated Press takes a look at the changes at The Wall Street Journal in the year it’s been owned by Rupert Murdoch and discovered that they haven’t resulted in any complaints from the staff.

Jesdanun writes, “Dozens of jobs were cut as the Journal merged print and online editing tasks as part of a push for various Dow Jones units to work more closely together. But total staff has grown by about 20, to 760, as the Journal boosts its international and political coverage.

“As the Journal broadens its front page, less room remains for company and industry news — 21 percent this year, compared with 30 percent last year, according to the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism.

“Criticism persists about that shift. Gone or played down are the Journal’s ‘leders’ — longer investigative pieces that often took weeks or months to complete and used to run at the top of the front page.

Read more here.