The Wall Street Journal

Two nights ago, Rupert Murdoch told The Observer that he went "a little too far" by declaring that his purchase of Newsday was a certainty, which he boldly told reporters and investors earlier in the week. This afternoon, he has withdrawn his offer.  read more »

For the past two weeks, Robert Thomson, publisher of The Wall Street Journal, has been busy not being the paper’s editor.

It hasn’t been easy. Since April 22, when Marcus Brauchli resigned as the newspaper’s managing editor, Mr. Thomson, who was forced to describe himself in an interview with The New York Times as the interim “head of content” for the paper, has had nine meetings (in person and on conference calls) to soothe the fraying nerves of his orphaned editorial staff.

“There was a real panic here for a few days when Marcus left,” said one reporter.  read more »

When Robert Thomson met with the reporters and editors of the Wall Street Journal's Money & Investing desk last week, he wasn't shy about at least one thing he planned to tear up from the old regime.

Namely, the plot to institute "Journal 3.0" that was put forward by former publisher Gordon Crovitz.

The initiative was meant to populate the front page with more "what-it-means" stories, on the assumption that like The New Yorker, the Journal would not become a first-read for straight national news.  read more »

Tomorrow marks the one-year anniversary of the original CNBC report that Rupert Murdoch was interested in buying Dow Jones at $60 per share. And one year later, nothing seems to have calmed down at the Wall Street Journal.  read more »

Given more time, Thomas Bray, one of the members of the special committee to oversee editorial independence at the Journal, would have liked to question Marcus Brauchli. There are two stories today: one in the Journal, and the other in the Times, airing the committee's grievances, but those complaints amount to little.  read more »

The Times has a mini-profile of Journal publisher Robert Thomson this morning. Here's what we learned:  read more »

And how was your day? If you're a media critic or reporter, it was anything but slow.

Starting last night when "Time Reporters" broke the news that Wall Street Journal managing editor Marcus Brauchli would be leaving the paper followed closely by The Wall Street Journal's Merissa Marr reporting Sam Zell's Tribune Co. was "closing in on an agreement to sell its Long Island newspaper Newsday" to her paper's parent company, News Corp., this was a day of constant scoops and fast (sometimes loose) seat-of-the-pants analysis.  read more »

Moments after Dow Jones sent out a press release announcing the departure of Wall Street Journal managing editor Marcus Brauchli, the following note went out to all staff on his behalf:

To the Staff:

A year ago, I was appointed managing editor, and we set off together on a great journey. We faced uncertainty about our ownership, inclement conditions in our industry and consensus that change was necessary. And so we chose a path of transformation.  read more »

• 0 comments

The deal has apparently been struck between outgoing Wall Street Journal managing editor Marcus Brauchli and his News Corp. overlord, Rupert Murdoch. This press release just came in:

Marcus Brauchli Steps Down as Managing Editor of The Wall Street Journal

Accepts Position as Consultant to News Corporation  read more »

• 0 comments

Media Mob has learned that Washington lawyer and champion Beltway book broker Robert Barnett is representing soon-to-be-former Wall Street Journal managing editor Marcus Brauchli in his severance-package negotiations with Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.

Mr. Barnett has, in the last year, brokered massive book deals for political heavyweights Karl Rove, Ted Kennedy, and Tony Blair.

They're working fast: the terms of Mr. Brauchli's departure from the Journal, which presumably depend upon his agreement, could be announced formally by News Corp. as soon as this afternoon, according to our sources at the paper.

So how's that editorial independence board for The Wall Street Journal doing? And will they do anything about Marcus Brauchli's departure?

"I'm really not going to comment on any of it," said Tom Bray, one of the five members of the committee and the de facto spokesman.

When asked if the board has met, he said that it has, but refused to speak about whether they had any say--or any knowledge--about Marcus Brauchli's departure.  read more »

The Wall Street Journal reports today that after Marcus Brauchli formally announces his resignation—which could happen later today—he'll be replaced on an interim basis by publisher Robert Thomson. Thereafter, a search for a full-time replacement "would begin shortly, with candidates coming from both inside and outside the paper." The Journal also reports that Mr. Brauchli would stay on with Dow Jones either as a "consultant or an executive."  read more »

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Sam Zell's Newsday is close to being sold to Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. for $580 million. The story is sourced to people familiar with the situation, and that both parties "have informally agreed on key aspects, including the price, structure and governance."  read more »

Newsweek gives big play this week to Rupert Murdoch's early maneuvers at The Wall Street Journal. Point: He's the general who has declared war on The New York Times.

This is something we've been talking about around here for a while now, and rumors of war aside, we haven't quite heard the first shot around here.

That doesn't change much with this week's story, but there's still lots of juice here.

Here are the highlights:  read more »

When The Wall Street Journal reported on its Web site on April 9 that “barring a change” Katie Couric and CBS News were “likely” to part ways and that it “could” happen after the election (those are just the qualifiers from its headline and subhead), Matthew Drudge picked it up quick as lightning on the Drudge Report.

After a few hours, the story, sourced to “people close to Couric” and executives, was taken out from behind a paid firewall, and WSJ.com watched the traffic—“definitely” one of its biggest hits of the month—roll in.  read more »

Filling out the rumors floated in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal, today the New York Times reports that a “wide-ranging discussion” about Katie Couric’s future took place among CBS executives back in February:

 read more »

Reporter James Bandler is leaving The Wall Street Journal for Fortune Magazine, Media Mob has learned. Mr. Bandler was a part of the team of Journal reporters that won the public service Pulitzer last year for stories on an investigation into backdated stock options for business executives. Mr. Bandler was also a critic of Rupert Murdoch, and was one of several reporters who wrote a letter to the Bancrofts pleading that the family not sell the paper.

On Thursday, Wall Street Journal staffers received a memo from managing editor Marcus Brauchli and books director Roe D'Angelo announcing a new book-leave policy.

It seemed simple enough: if reporters want to write a book they need to inform editors ahead of time; the paper can start providing some marketing help—all pretty pro forma stuff. Mr. Brauchli wrote that the change allows the paper to "protect our interests in books based on Journal reporting."  read more »

Tara Parker-Pope, who blogs about health and writes a health column for The New York Times, has sold an advice book on healthy marriages to Dutton, Publisher's Weekly reports.  read more »

David Carr tackles the changing Wall Street Journal this morning and writes about the paper's sudden infactuation with politics. Journal managing editor Marcus Brauchli concedes to Mr. Carr that there have been more political stories this year, but that's because it's such an extraordinary year (simple enough). But Mr. Brauchli also offered this interesting quote:  read more »

The world was ready for cries of “What fresh hell is this!” from The Wall Street Journal when news broke this week that Rupert Murdoch was planning to move his newest acquisition into his 45-story tower at Sixth Avenue and 48th street, the Death Star of the News Corp. enterprise.

“Are you kidding?” rasped Journal editorial-board member and Pulitzer-winner Dorothy Rabinowitz when we called to collect the requisite fond farewells to the neighborhood that has been home to The Journal for more than a century.  read more »

What will it mean for the Financial District if its paper of record moves far away from Wall Street?  read more »

News Corp. owner Rupert Murdoch wants to move his recently purchased Wall Street Journal out of Manhattan's financial district by the end of the year.

Mr. Murdoch is proposing that the Journal newsroom move out of its home at the World Financial Center adjacent to the World Trade Center site and into his News Corp. headquarters in the "canyon" on Sixth Avenue, according to newsroom sources.  read more »

Let the speculation begin. The Wall Street Journal announced this morning that it is removing the paid firewall on its web site for its opinion and editorial content, which raises an obvious but pressing question: How far is Rupert Murdoch from turning the entire web site free?  read more »

In addition to speaking to the Wall Street Journal newsroom, Rupert Murdoch also found time to sit down with Fox's Neal Cavuto yesterday, after the News Corp. chief's bid to take over Dow Jones was offically approved by shareholders.

The Huffington Post has picked out some choice excerpts from the conversation, a few of which follow after the jump...  read more »

Dow Jones shareholders said yes to a $60-per-share bid from Rupert Murdoch this morning at the Marriott on West Street in the Financial District.

The Wall Street Journal will formally become Mr. Murdoch's later today.

As has been noted, the wsj.com holiday bash is going to be a shoestring affair.

And even with the new boss in town, the newsroom holiday party will be a low-budget affair too. Though, Paul Steiger is donating $100 for it.

The invite, after the jump...  read more »

For a little over a month, The Wall Street Journal has been in a quiet feud with the cable business channel CNBC—and it’s not because the Journal’s parent company is about to get a new stepdad in News Corp.’s Rupert Murdoch.

In early November, the fashion house Estée Lauder offered the Journal and Women’s Wear Daily an advance tip that the lagging company’s chief executive, William Lauder, planned to relinquish his title within two years, under pressure from investors.  read more »

Yesterday at The Wall Street Journal, there were resignation announcements, multi-million dollar severance packages, and plans for trans-atlantic trips. And over the next few months, the shakeup is likely to continue.  read more »

After less than two years on the job—and just a week before Rupert Murdoch takes formal control of Dow Jones—the company's CEO Richard Zannino has resigned.

"Dow Jones is about to begin a new chapter," Mr. Zannino said in a statement. "Dow Jones fits perfectly into News Corp., and Rupert and I have been discussing since September my moving on from the company after the closing."

In a press release put out this afternoon, the company said: "News Corporation will be announcing Zannino's successor shortly. Mr. Zannino will assist in the transition."  read more »

The Guardian is reporting that the board of The Times of London is set to meet next week and appoint a new editor replacing Robert Thomson. One executive told The Guardian the appointment of a new editor would happen "by the end of next week."

Next Thursday, Rupert Murdoch will be in full control of The Wall Street Journal and Mr. Thomson has long been mentioned as the potential next publisher of the paper since News Corp announced its takeover bid. If Mr. Thomson is replaced as an editor in London then everything seems perfectly timed for a quick move to the World Financial Center.  read more »

The Wall Street Journal has made another move to beef up its Washington bureau. Gorkana, excerpted by Fishbowl DC, reports:

Joe White, Detroit Bureau Chief at The Wall Street Journal, will be joining the Washington Bureau as a Senior Editor, overseeing a team of reporters covering energy, the environment, transportation and certain other areas of regulation. He joins Jonathan Kaufman who has also recently been made Senior Editor at the bureau.

Other recent recruits to The Journal's Washington coverage include new bureau chief John Bussey, as well as editor Gary Putka. However, last week the paper lost star political writer John Harwod to The Times.

When it came to securing Dow Jones and The Wall Street Journal for Manhattan's biggest real estate auction, real estate tycoon Stephen Ross evidently beat Ric Clark to the punch.  read more »

The Wall Street Journal's Washington bureau is set to expand its political coverage.

"Over the next many months, a major chunk of the Journal's coverage agenda will be dominated by an event certain to rock not just the U.S. but the world: the American voter’s choice of new leaders for the nation," DC Bureau Chief John Bussey wrote in a staff e-mail.  read more »

Asked if he thought the group would have any muscle, Louis Boccardi said, “Talk to me in a year.”  read more »

In September, The Observer reported that The Wall Street Journal plans to beef up its Washington coverage--getting a jump on changes that Rupert Murdoch has said he intends to make.

The beefing up appears to have begun. Just in time for the presidential primaries, the paper announced today that, starting Tuesday, it will reinstitute its Capital Journal column, written by Washington executive editor Gerald Seib, which has not run since 2004.

Mr Seib's statement after the jump...  read more »

Add another item to the list of changes that the Murdoch era could usher in for The Wall Street Journal.  read more »

The Observer recently reported that Wall Street Journal editors expect that Rupert Murdoch will soon find a leading role at the paper for one of his most trusted lieutenants, Robert Thomson, who is currently the editor of The Times of London.

Now, The Guardian says the move is all but a done deal. A source identified as a "senior US media executive" tells The Guardian that he is "90 percent certain" that Mr. Murdoch will install Mr. Thomson as the Journal's publisher next year.

Mr. Thomson and Journal managing editor Marcus Brauchli go back a ways -- they got to know each other when both worked as foreign correspondents, for different papers, in Tokyo.

It's looking more and more likely that there could soon be a reunion.

Pursuits won’t launch until next September—though it’s speculated that Rupert Murdoch may try to push up the start date—but already a prototype has been laid out and approved by Mr. Murdoch, according to a knowledgeable Dow Jones source.  read more »

Since the sale of Dow Jones to Rupert Murdoch over the summer, there has been speculation that Mr. Brauchli may have to audition for his job all over again.  read more »

At a News Corp. shareholders meeting Friday, Rupert Murdoch went further towards confirming what he's alredy suggested about where he wants to take The Wall Street Journal when he assumes control of Dow Jones later this year. According to USA Today, Mr. Murdoch said he will "beef up The Wall Street Journal's coverage of national, international, and cultural affairs, to make it more appealing to general audiences." In other words, as The Observer spelled out last week, he's heading straight for The New York Times.

Some other interesting comments made by Mr. Murdoch at the meeting, after the jump.

   read more »

Today, on Dow Jones' third quarter conference call, CEO Richard Zannino discussed whether the company might bring down the paywall on The Wall Street Journal's web site, a move that has been widely speculated about since Rupert Murdoch's bid for Dow Jones was accepted this summer.

"Our interests are entirely aligned with News Corp.'s interest on that score," said Mr. Zannino. "So we're going to spend some time here digging even deeper, perhaps, than we've dug in the past into looking at the model, and we are going to do that together with News Corp. and Rupert, and we'll come to a logical conclusion."

Gordon Crovitz, The Journal's publisher, added: "The opportunity and the challenge now is can we be both the best and the largest [business web site]? And at 10 million uniques for the online Journal, obviously a million of those subscribers, we're on our way but we're not the biggest. So is there a way to continue to expand our audience while maximizing the profitability of our online operations?"

There just might be....

Rupert has seen the future: it’s insurgent Journal vs. ‘monolithic media.’  read more »

It’s still nearly two months until News Corp. officially closes on Dow Jones, The Wall Street Journal’s parent. But there’s growing evidence that at The Journal, the Rupert Murdoch era has already begun.  read more »

Looks like not everyone’s on the same page within the union that represents the bulk of Wall Street Journal employees.

On Sunday, local 1096 president Steve Yount emailed members to announce that after months of contentious negotiations, the union board of directors had reached a tentative deal with Dow Jones management and was passing along the new contract offer with a recommendation to ratify it.

Now, some key players in the union appear less than thrilled with the proposed contract—not to mention, with Mr. Yount’s role in negotiating it.

Wrote Jim Browning, a Journal reporter and union representative, in a bulk email today: “This is not the best contract that we could have gotten.”

Full memo after the jump:

 read more »

Karl Rove is leaving the White House—and announced his exit in an exclusive interview with Wall Street Journal editorial-page editor Paul Gigot this morning. 

From the news article the paper ran to tease the Gigot column:

Mr. Rove, who has held a senior post in the White House since President Bush took office in January 2001, told Mr. Gigot he first floated the idea of leaving a year ago. But he delayed his departure as, first, Democrats took Congress, and then as the White House tackled debates on immigration and Iraq, he said. He said he decided to leave after White House Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten told senior aides that if they stayed past Labor Day they would be obliged to remain through the end of the president's term in January 2009.

 read more »

In the wake of Rupert Murdoch’s purchase of Dow Jones, another veteran Wall Street Journal reporter is leaving the paper to join Conde Nast’s Portfolio.

Scot Paltrow, a senior special writer for The Wall Street Journal, will join Portfolio as a contributing editor, starting Sept. 1.

He follows Peter Waldman there; the investigative features writer announced in July that he would be leaving the Journal for Portfolio after 22 years.  read more »

Peter Waldman, an investigative feature writer for The Wall Street Journal, is leaving the paper for a job at Portfolio.

Mr. Waldman, who is based in the paper’s San Francisco bureau, will begin at Portfolio in mid-August as a senior investigative writer. On Monday, he announced his decision to his colleagues via email.  read more »

On Thursday, July 19 Dieter von Holtzbrinck resigned from his position as a board member of the Dow Jones Company—a move that the Wall Street Journal first reported on Thursday evening.

Mr. Holtzbrinck’s actions come two days after his fellow board members voted in favor of Mr. Murdoch’s $5 billion bid to purchase Dow Jones. Mr. Holtzbrink abstained from the vote.  read more »

Since the day Rupert Murdoch's bid to buy Dow Jones, Inc. became public, The Wall Street Journal, a Dow Jones property, has been reporting assiduously on the reactions of the Bancroft family, which controls the company.

Slightly buried in today's Wall Street Journal piece about a statement from the Bancrofts released last night indicating their willingness to talk to Mr. Murdoch about a sale:  read more »