Wall Street Journal reporters stage absences to protest News Corp takeover

Posted by Mica Swyers on June 29, 2007 at 9:30 AM

On June 28, approximately one-third of the Wall Street Journal’s reporters staged morning absences across the US, in protest of the sale of the business daily to Rupert Murdoch. In an Independent Association of Publishers’ Employees (IAPE), statement, reporters explained that they had staged absences to demonstrate that the editorial integrity of the paper required “an owner committed to journalistic independence.”

Some journalists, particularly those represented IAPE, are concerned that the head of News Corporation would use the Dow Jones & Co.’s respected financial publication to benefit his other media holdings. In addition, WSJ employees criticized the significant proposed benefits for the top executives of Dow Jones.

The journalists returned to work by the afternoon, and a company spokesperson reported that the event would not affect publication of the Friday paper.

In May 2007, the Bancroft family, who controls Dow Jones, refused Murdoch’s offer of $5 billion ($60 per share). Since then, Murdoch has been in talks with the family to discuss safeguards of the paper’s editorial independence, and some analysts predict that the WSJ will change hands the near future.

The trend of business moguls turning to financial papers as potential sources of revenue has raised concerns about the editorial independence and integrity of well-known and respected publications. In France, journalists at the financial papers Les Echos and La Tribune have gone on strike to protest similar perceived threats to editorial independence from luxury goods producer Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessey.

Source: Agence France Presse