New owner Rupert Murdoch will supposedly grace the newsroom of the Wall Street Journal with his presence today. When he arrives—in fact, we just heard that he's in the building now— he may be greeted by a bunch of big yellow signs with catchy slogans like "Give us a fair deal," and "Bancrofts' lawyers: $30 million. Staff: Pay cut." That'll show him! If, you know, they don't get torn down first.
This morning, Wall Street Journal Markets reporter and union bigwig Jim "E.S." Browning sent around an email in anticipation of new owner Rupert Murdoch's visit to the offices today. Apparently, the union sent around these signs last week, to make their feelings about the takeover known. (Aww. It's the little gestures that really count!) But it seems that they've all been torn down.
In what seems to be an attempt to demonstrate why they're reporters and not business experts, a group of over one hundred Newsday employees have sent a letter calling on "Tribune Co., Newsday's parent company, to invest in the newspaper's "creative, original journalism," while halting the widespread staff cuts and space trims that have hurt the paper, its readers and its advertiser." While we love the idea of Tribune execs somehow pitching forward at their desks, smacking themselves on the head and shouting, "Good God, they're right! Why didn't we think of that?", we're pretty sure the main service of this letter will be to provide a quick-and-handy checklist for HR during the next inevitable round of layoffs. Full release after the jump; keep an eye out for the bit about the "shameful, illegal and costly inflation of our circulation figures."
