WSJ attorney fired; reporters upset

John Koblin of The New York Observer writes Friday that an attorney who has represented The Wall Street Journal for more than a decade has been fired, leaving many journalists at the paper upset about the decision.

Koblin wrote, “The lawyer, Stuart Karle, has been with the newspaper since 1992. Yesterday afternoon, Mr. Karle was called into the office of Dow Jones’ counsel, Mark Jackson (Mr. Jackson was formerly the associate chief counsel of Harper Collins and was made the chief counsel of Dow Jones on Dec. 17, two work days after Mr. Murdoch closed on his sale of the company).

“Yesterday, Mr. Karle walked into Mr. Jackson’s office and was told he was fired and he had to leave the paper by the end of March, according to a person familiar with the situation. Two newsroom sources said that the paper’s managing editor, Marcus Brauchli, had no say in the decision.

“The Journal newsroom today, described one staffer, is ‘stunned.’

“‘We’re pissed,’ said another. ‘Stuart understands our culture, he comes from within our culture. Why is Murdoch bringing in someone from Harper Collins? Symbolically, it’s a bad move. It doesn’t give you a lot of confidence that Murdoch really values the culture of this place.'”

Read more here.

Stuart handles news-related issues for The Journal and other Dow Jones publications. He earned a bachelor’s degree at Columbia and then became a reporter for a Dow Jones newswire before attending law school at the University of Chicago.