Union slams decision to run breakingviews.com column in WSJ

The union that represents journalists who work for The Wall Street Journal, Barron’s, Dow Jones Newswires and MarketWatch criticized a decision by parent company Dow Jones to run a column from Breakingviews.com every day in the Journal.

Union president Steve Yount, in a statement posted on its web site, stated that the move “move that smacks of the Journal outsourcing its core news coverage.”

Later, he wrote, “When it produces news in-house, the Journal and Dow Jones can ensure that strong controls are in place to prevent this kind of abuse. Once it relinquishes that control to an outsider— whoever that outsider is— the famous and time-tested Dow Jones guarantee of quality becomes that much weaker. That’s particularly true if the outsider has a wide range of clients with competing interests.

“Is this the formula for the WSJ of the future— homogenized news, prepared by outsiders who don’t ask for healthcare or retirement, and who can’t talk back?”

Read more here. It should be noted that the union is currently in negotiations with Dow Jones on a new contract.