WSJ removes articles from online archives

The Wall Street Journal has posted the following note:

Three Off Duty travel articles written by freelance writer Akhil Sharma have been removed from The Wall Street Journal’s electronic archives because Mr. Sharma received some free and discounted goods and services, including hotel stays, in reporting these articles. Such deals violate the Journal’s policy that forbids writers from accepting free goods or services or from taking discounts not available to the general public. The articles were “Peek at Secret Florence,” published April 26; “Defrost Your Inner Winter Olympian,” Feb. 16, 2013; and “Row, Row, Row Your Gondola,” June 23, 2012.

Sharma is the author of An Obedient Father, winner of the PEN/Hemingway Award and was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. His writing has appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Best American Short Stories, and O. Henry Award Stories. A native of Delhi, he lives in New York City.

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.