ink-stained wretches

Thomson Streamlines the ‘Journal’ Masthead Even Further

Robert Thomson and Rupert Murdoch

Photo: Getty Images

Like a giant game of ink-stained Tetris, the editorial upper management of The Wall Street Journal continues to shift, fall, and blink out of existence as its masterminds, Rupert Murdoch and Robert Thomson, try to streamline the entire operation. Today, Gawker has internal memos from Thomson explaining the latest shifts. Turns out deputy managing editor Laurie Hayes “has decided to leave the Journal after almost 23 years to pursue another career opportunity.” Also, Thomson is centralizing the news desk for print, online, and wire services. When Thomson is out of the office, deputy managing editor Mike Miller will make editorial decisions. Matt Murray, formerly a general-news editor, will be national editor. Former money and investing editor Nikhil Deogun will become international editor, and ethics guru Alix Freedman will have expanded powers. Reuters has an expanded translation of the changes. Thomson closes one of the memos with the following encouragement to his troops:

Most news organizations in the U.S. and around the world are in retreat, but Dow Jones is expanding its reporting resources, rapidly developing its digital content and providing journalism of the highest integrity to an ever larger audience in The Wall Street Journal.


Everyone else is “in retreat”? We’re not sure we could write a more News Corp–y sentence if we tried.

’Wall Street Journal’: Major Editorial Shuffle [Gawker]
Deck Shuffling at ‘The Wall Street Journal’ [Reuters]

Thomson Streamlines the ‘Journal’ Masthead Even Further