Following the Wall Street Journal's Wednesday announcement that 50 staff positions would be eliminated, mostly in copyediting and page production, Jim Pensiero, the Journal's Deputy Managing Editor, sent a note to staffers outlining details of the new desk structure. The changes are calendared to take place in mid-August.

Below follows an excerpted version of Pensiero's note:

The key changes include:

·  Daily news operations will be run by four deputy managing editors: National, International, Page One and Features.

· News-editing and news-production duties are divided into four broad areas: News and Page One desks, and Personal Journal and Weekend Journal.

· All reporting bureaus report to one of the top editors

·  Four shared support groups-Design, Photo, Infographics and Prepress-will serve all desks and sections.

Key managment positions for the restructuring:

· Senior Deputy Managing Editor - Features: Senior deputy to the managing editor; responsible for features sections, including Personal Journal, Weekend Journal, Journal Reports and the WSJ magazine.

Works with: National, International and Page One editors.
Controls: Personal and Weekend Journal, Journal Reports and the magazine.
Reports to: Managing editor.

· Deputy Managing Editor - National: Together with DME/International, jointly manages the News Desk hub. Directs corporate, political and general news coverage in North America for all channels. Responsible for all U.S. news bureaus.

Works with: International, Markets and Page One desks, and Features operations.
Controls: Domestic bureaus, Corporate and National desks, News Desk hub.
Reports to: Managing editor.

· Deputy Managing Editor - International: Together with DME/National, jointly manages the News Desk hub. Directs international corporate, markets, political and general news coverage for all channels. Manages foreign news bureaus and Money team.

Works with: National and Page One desks, and with Features operations.
Controls: Foreign bureaus, Money reporters and Markets desk, and News Desk hub.
Reports to: Managing editor.

· Deputy Managing Editor - Page One: Responsible for feature and investigative articles for all channels.

Works with: News and Features desks.
Controls: Investigative bureaus, including in DC, and the Page One desk.
Reports to: Managing editor.

Shared Desks:

· Design Desk: A Design Desk will ensure design integrity across the Journal, help in load leveling as well as perform pagination and layout functions for the overseas editions, pages for partner papers and some Barron's pages. The team includes headcut illustrators as well as the color lab for processing images.

· Picture Desk: Perform photo research and assignment tasks for all desks. It also manages the Journal's photo contracts.

· Information Graphics Desk: The team researches and builds interactive and print graphics for all sections of the Journal, including databases and other stand-alone projects.

· Prepress: Perform final quality control on Journal and Barron's pages and ensure they arrive at print sites.

Source: Editor & Publisher