Layoffs Continue at Dow Jones and The Wall Street Journal, Changes Expected in Newsroom
In recent news, Dow Jones, the parent company of The Wall Street Journal, Barron’s, and MarketWatch, has announced additional layoffs with approximately 10 people affected in the last week of June. The roles primarily belonged to the finance, sales, and marketing departments, impacting Dow Jones properties.
Speculation about forthcoming layoffs has been circulating since News Corp., the parent company, revealed its plan to reduce staff by 5% (approximately 1,250 roles) across all its businesses by 2023. The media industry has witnessed a significant number of layoffs in the last year, affecting both digital newcomers and established newsrooms like The Wall Street Journal.
During an all-hands meeting in June, Dow Jones CEO Almar Latour affirmed that more layoffs were imminent. However, he emphasized that over the past year, the company had also hired over 1,000 new employees. Like other news organizations, Dow Jones is exploring the utilization of AI in news and other areas, leading to concerns that technology may replace human employees.
While The Wall Street Journal’s newsroom has largely been spared from layoffs, Editor-in-Chief Emma Tucker is conducting a comprehensive content review. It is expected that she will announce her plans for the newsroom in the summer, which may include a reorganization and potential job cuts. Tucker and her team are scrutinizing reporters’ beats to identify areas of overlap, which could result in some reassignments.
Since taking over the position in February, Tucker has already implemented changes in the top editor ranks, bringing in Liz Harris and Taneth Evans from her previous role at Rupert Murdoch’s Sunday Times in London. She has also appointed respected Journal veteran Charles Forelle as Deputy Editor-in-Chief. However, Tucker has also parted ways with several longstanding editors, including Karen Pensiero, Neal Lipschutz, Jason Anders, and most recently, Thorold Barker.
Tucker has been praised for her changes so far, such as simplifying writing by eliminating honorifics and corporate designations. Reporters have been encouraged to pursue more engaging stories, with Tucker highlighting articles on topics like Bernard Arnault grooming his children to run LVMH and the sense of nervousness surrounding the 2024 presidential election.
While many applaud Tucker’s initiatives, some are apprehensive about the uncertainty surrounding the newsroom and fear that the content plan may lead to further layoffs or an excessive reliance on data for news coverage.
There’s definitely some amount of anxiousness, said one insider, reflecting the concerns within the organization.
As changes continue to unfold at Dow Jones and the Wall Street Journal newsroom, the industry will be watching closely to see how these transformations impact the future of journalism and the iconic publication.
