About 30 Employees from Dow Jones South Brunswick Location Laid Off

Employees at the Dow Jones site in South Brunswick were hit hard by a round of layoffs that were handed down earlier this week by the company.  Approximately 27 employees at the South Brunswick site who are represented by the Independent Association of Publishers' Employees (IAPE) lost their jobs, effective July 1, according to IAPE 1096 President Steve Yount.  

"It's a shame the company does things like this because it's short sighted to lose good people and lose years of experience and dedication to Dow Jones that can never be replaced by new people that come in," Yount said.  "I think the company will ultimately pay the price for a decision that is pennywise and pound foolish."

In total, 34 IAPE represented employees were laid off, but Dow Jones didn't disclose the number of managers and non-union employees who lost their jobs, so the actual total of jobs lost could be significantly higher.

Yount said the unionized layoffs were comprised of employees from information technology who worked on a variety of publications, including the Wall Street Journal and Barrons.

"I don't know exactly what percentages were involved in the layoffs or how much time they spent on various publications like the Wall Street Journal or Dow Jones Newswire, but it's safe to say the employees were spread over all of the Dow Jones products," he said.

The layoffs were announced about one week after the parent company of Dow Jones, the Rupert Murdoch owned News Corp., announced a 24 percent drop in third-quarter earnings.  Yount said IAPE could challenge a number of the layoffs based on questions of violating seniority. He said the union was investigating and awaiting answer to a number of questions from Dow Jones.

Dow Jones Vice President of Corporate Affairs Howard Hoffman said the company had no comment on the layoffs.

In a staff-wide memo sent to Dow Jones employees last week before the layoffs were announced, CEO Les Hinton touted the company's recent successes.

 The memo said the Wall Street Journal’s total ad revenue rose 2.6 percent in the fiscal third quarter, while total circulation revenue improved by 8 percent in the quarter. The memo also said the print version of the Wall Street Journal recorded 17 consecutive quarters of circulation-revenue growth, including nearly 6 percent in the third quarter.

"What other newspaper can tell that story?" Hinton said in the memo.

"We achieved this growth with compelling ideas and with business discipline," Hinton added in the memo. "The fact that we’re already counting many millions in incremental subscription and advertising dollars from our products on tablet computers says a lot about our ability to seize the opportunities of new technology."

Just one week after that memo was sent, the employees of the company are now faced with an uncertain future, Yount said.

"I think there's an ongoing uncertainty for what the future is going to be for a lot of these people," Yount said.  "Beyond the fact that people lost their jobs and lost income when they were probably not expecting to do so, that's one thing, but for everybody else left in the South Brunswick location and across the country, there is always this sneaking fear that this is not over and they will eventually lose their jobs as well, and that's an unsettling feeling."