March 28, 2009
Job Cuts 03.27.09
The bad news continues at Dow Jones.
Dow Jones has cut another 14 positions. This time the bulk of the cuts came among sales-related folks at BRI, a portion of what was once Factiva. In addition, the company laid off two employees in the Data Market Group in South Brunswick.
As was the case with the other layoffs and outsourcing decisions Dow Jones has made over the past three years, these cuts are regrettable. Just as was the case in the earlier cuts, some very good people are losing jobs — and the company is losing a valuable resource as more dedicated, hard-working employees are being discarded.
So far this year the Company has cut 52 IAPE-represented positions. The total was 253 in 2008, 63 in 2007 and 96 in 2006, the first year of stepped-up Dow Jones outsourcing. In 2005 the company cut just 44 IAPE-represented positions.
The latest cuts came in the same week that The Wall Street Journal's Robert Thomson bragged about the latest numbers, writing, "Amidst the bleak, almost apocalyptic prognostications for the newspaper industry, it is worth focusing for a moment on the increase in the Journal's audience over the past year. We are the only large paper in the country seeing a significant increase in core circulation (papers for which people actually pay). The website, depending on the month, has virtually doubled in size since the News Corp acquisition, the WSJ mobile reader is a phenomenon, and the new sports page has cult status."
We believe it is important for the company to recognize the fact that its success is the result of the hard-work and dedication of the very people whose jobs are far too often sacrificed for quick and easy nickels and dimes.
As always, we will review the specific circumstances of each of the layoffs of IAPE-represented employees and will do everything necessary to ensure that the terms of the contract are followed.