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 Estée Lauder, The Journal and WWD agreed to run their semi-exclusives on Friday, Nov. 9. It’s a huge story for WWD, which follows the fortunes of Estée 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 executive’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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