Categories: OLD Media Moves

WSJ and CNBC in a feud, and it's not about Murdoch

John Koblin of The New York Observer writes Wednesday that The Wall Street Journal is upset at business news network CNBC for leaking its scoop about William Lauder stepping down from the head of Estee Lauder.

Koblin wrote, “According to a spokesperson at EstÃ©e Lauder, The Journal and WWD agreed to run their semi-exclusives on Friday, Nov. 9. Itâ€™s a huge story for WWD, which follows the fortunes of EstÃ©e Lauder daily; and for The Journal, the opportunity to break big fashion-industry news rated a B1 placement.

“But the day before stories were to run, The Journal forwarded an advance copy of its piece to CNBC. A CNBC anchor, whom nobody interviewed by The Observer would name, then sent the piece to a Lauder executiveâ€™s BlackBerry, the Lauder spokesperson said.

“Irate at seeing the story in circulation before the agreed-upon embargo date, the Lauder public-relations department (which said it has ‘great respect for CNBC and The Journal’) gave WWD permission to jump the schedule and publish the news on its Web site just after 6 p.m., beating The Journal, a WWD spokesperson said.”

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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.