The Wall Street Journal lays off staff as more and more consumers now get their news on platforms like X, as well as, online. It is a telling sign of America’s rapidly changing world in media.
As part of a reorganization of the Washington, D.C., bureau, the Wall Street Journal laid off nearly 20 reporters and editors on Thursday.
In a memo to the Journal newsroom, editor-in-chief Emma Tucker announced that the paper will be undergoing restructuring as part of its strategy to provide reliable and ambitious reporting for readers in the upcoming election year and beyond. According to sources who obtained the memo, first reported by The New York Times, this will involve the closure of both the D.C.-based business team and U.S.-China-focused team. Additionally, some economics roles will now fall under a New York-based team, while judiciary-related stories will be overseen by the paper’s law bureau chief.
Journalists declined to comment.
Several deputy bureau chiefs and reporters covering policy will be affected, according to several Journal sources. Tucker wrote that the bureau’s focus now will be on politics, policy, defense, law, intelligence, and national security.
16 reporters and one columnist were let go, according to IAPE 1096, the union that represents Dow Jones publications. It is unclear how many editors were let go.
In the past, multiple news outlets reported the layoffs, but official word did not arrive until Thursday. Staffers were given the news by managing editor Liz Harris, deputy editor-in-chief Phil Izzo, and chief news editor Elena Cherney in a meeting that lasted about five minutes and offered little clarity on the layoffs’ impact, two sources told The Daily Beast.
After Tucker’s appointment last year, Thursday’s layoffs come at a transitional time for the Journal. She launched a content review during her first months at the paper, which led top editors to leave or switch roles. Next week, Paul Beckett, the former Washington bureau chief, will begin a new role aimed at removing journalist Evan Gershkovich from Russia. Beckett’s replacement, Damian Paletta, will begin next week.
The job cuts are also markedly different from those at The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, and other publications forced to let staffers go due to financial concerns. According to CEO Robert Thomson in a November statement, News Corp, the paper’s parent company, reported increased profitability in its first fiscal quarter. Thomson noted that the “positive performance has followed three profitable years since News Corp was created.”