In the fast-declining newspaper industry, publishers sometimes resort to creative ways to massage circulation numbers. One way to do it is to beef up “bulk” sales – copies sold by the thousands and at heavy discounts to clients such as airline companies or hotel chains. These are supposed to boost circulation numbers and impress advertisers, although the advertisers are often sceptical. This long-standing game with well established rules is played between consenting adults and hardly does anyone any harm.
The publisher of the European edition of the Wall Street Journal, Andrew Langhoff, resigned prior to allegations in the Guardian newspaper that he had stretched those rules by offering a company some kind of editorial support in return for its help.
Dow Jones & Co, the Journal’s parent, said Langhoff had quit over ethical issues, saying there had been a “perceived breach of editorial integrity”.
Something similar could have happened at any publisher. But Dow Jones is part of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp empire, which is still reeling from the consequences of a phone-hacking scandal that forced it to close the News of the World, a flagship UK newspaper. This gives the tale an extra twist.
Dow Jones still hasn’t convincingly explained the timing of the resignation. The Guardian newspaper has alleged that the company’s top management knew about the questionable business dealings since at least November 2010. But Langhoff only resigned on the eve of the Guardian’s publication of its investigation on the Journal’s creative techniques for boosting reported circulation. After the hacking scandal, News Corp management should know that a cover-up is often more harmful than the alleged impropriety.
The Journal’s techniques have apparently not broken laws other than those of good taste and possibly journalistic ethics. Editorial integrity has been the Journal’s most valuable asset for decades. It would be unconscionably self-destructive for News Corp to forget it has to maintain those standards.