Categories: OLD Media Moves

WSJ union to Murdoch: You just don't get it

The union that represents the business journalists at The Wall Street Journal, Barron’s and Marketwatch responded Friday in an e-mail to its members that comments made by News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch in a story in Friday’s New York Times show that he doesn’t understand the Journal.

News Corp. offered to buy Dow Jones & Co., the parent of the business papers and web site, for $5 billion earlier this week.

Union president Steve Yount said,Â “I was particularly troubled by an apparent off-hand comment in the New York Times interview with Rupert Murdoch, quoting Mr. Murdoch saying, ‘I’m sometimes frustrated by the long stories,’Â he said, adding that he rarely gets around to finishing some articles.

“I’m afraid Mr. Murdoch doesn’t understand why The Wall Street Journal is The Wall Street Journal.

“Not everything is five paragraphs and picture.

“Dow Jones did not become the most trusted source of business news and information in the world by serving up News Nuggets.”

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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.