WSJ editor reshuffling process to wrap up this week

The process of Wall Street Journal editors re-applying for jobs is likely to end this week, reports Kali Hays of WWD.

Hays reports, “Many desk editors at The Journal have been at the paper for several years, according to some online profiles, and having them reapply for their positions, while demeaning, is a way to move people around or to different positions — or move them out. Although it’s unclear if anyone has indeed been laid off entirely, or chose to leave rather than reapply for a position, it’s understood that the reapplication process was open, with others in the newsroom welcome to throw their figurative hats in the ring. Those editors that didn’t get to keep their former editing postings have been or will be offered another role, a process that’s set to wrap up this week. Whether they accept those positions is up to them.

“In an internal memo from late April, editor in chief Gerard Baker characterized the changes as a continuation of The Journal’s ‘WSJ 2020’ reorganization plan around digital and mobile, and reiterated that alterations to editing roles and processes ‘are not an exercise in cost-cutting or in reducing the number — or value — of editors.’ Instead, he said the changes are in favor of ‘efficiency and cohesion,’ as well as a ‘new central editing structure.’

“The Journal is said to have something of a baroque system of editing, a holdover from print-driven days of yore, with even daily web stories said to often go through multiple editors. This seems an effort to change that.”

Read more here.