WSJ’s Patel elected as head of union

Yogita Patel

Wall Street Journal reporter Yogita Patel has been elected as president of the Independent Association of Publishers’ Employees, Local 1096 of The NewsGuild-CWA, the union that represents journalists at The Journal, Barron’s and MarketWatch.com

Patel received 364 votes, or 59.5 percent, compared to 197 for interactive news writer Robert Johnson and 51 for Bob Kozma, the current president.

Had any candidate finished first without receiving a majority of votes cast by IAPE members, a run-off election would have been necessary.

In the race for secretary, Journal reporter Siobhan Hughes, who covers Capitol Hill from the DC bureau, defeated Michael Tahmisyan by a count of 517 to 82.

In the election, 615 of 1119 eligible members voted for a 54.96 percent participation rate.

Earlier this year, the union and Dow Jones, the parent of The Journal, agreed to continue their contract for another year.

The agreement provided a first-year minimum salary increase of 2 percent for all union-represented employees retroactive to July 1, 2016, and similar minimum 2 percent increases effective July 1, 2017, and July 1, 2018

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.