Emma Tucker speaks onstage. (Photo by Noam Galai/Getty Images for WSJ. Magazine Innovators Awards)
On Monday, as The Wall Street Journal prepared for its annual Tech Live conference, hosted this year in Napa Valley, senior executives from Dow Jones and its parent company News Corporation descended on the organization’s new San Francisco offices. The company moved into the modern space over the summer, which now serves as the newspaper’s West Coast hub.
News Corporation chief executive Robert Thomson and Dow Jones boss Almar Latour both stopped by, joining staffers for a lunchtime Q&A that allowed employees to pose questions directly to leadership. Among the topics raised: whether owner Lachlan Murdoch might one day sell the paper. Staffers were told that Murdoch “loves the newspaper” and that no such sale is in the works.
But it was a subsequent meeting later in the day, led by Dow Jones human resources head Dianne DeSevo and communications chief Ashok Sinha, that proved more fraught. According to people familiar with the matter…
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Conde Nast employees confront head of HR Stan Duncan. (Screen grab via The Wrap)
Chaos at Condé: Condé Nast fired four employees Thursday after a group of union staffers confronted company HR chief Stan Duncan over the closure of Teen Vogue and resulting layoffs. The impacted employees were WIRED reporter Jake Lahut, New Yorker fact-checker Jasper Lo, Bon Appétit digital staffer Alma Avalle, and video staffer Ben Dewey. A video obtained by The Wrap's Corbin Bolies showed the tense exchange that led to the confrontation, with Duncan ultimately directing the staffers to go back to their workplaces down the hall and declining to answer their questions. "Extreme misconduct is unacceptable in any professional setting. This includes aggressive, disruptive, and threatening behavior of any kind," Condé said in a statement. The NewsGuild of New York, which Condé also filed an NLBR complaint against, countered that its members were "exercising their legally protected right to engage in concerted action."
Status Scoop | POLITICO offered voluntary buyouts to the entire audio department, made up of a half dozen or so staffers, Status has learned. The move comes…
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