Industry: WSJ cuts in on book deals

By Nergish Sunavala

Wall Street Journal employees are miffed about the Journal’s new book policy. The New York Observer reported that employees of the Wall Street Journal received a memo asking them to inform the management if they intended to write a book. The reason given was so that the management could provide marketing and advertising assistance. The catch is that the WSJ has a right to a certain percentage of the proceeds, if the book is a result of Journal reporting. This policy was introduced only a few months after the Journal was bought over by Rupert Murdoch. According to the Observer, the staff feels that this is the management’s way of deterring reporters from writing books.