The Other Shoe Drops at WSJ

The Wall Street Journal just canned almost the entire South Brunswick office. The copy desk, pagination and monitor desks now cease to exist. But don’t worry. Everyone is encouraged to apply for the new news desk in New York. They plan to cut about 50 positions though, so some people are going to be out of a job.
From the official memo sent out to staffers:
“We will be posting the new editing desk jobs no later than Friday and genuinely encourage all staffers affected by this announcement to apply for these openings in New York. About 50 positions will be lost, but staffers with the highest skill levels and the enthusiasm to acquire new skills will have a distinct advantage during the selection process.”
Which really translates to if you sucked up enough to the right people then you will have a position reserved for you. As for the people we can’t keep, well, good luck trying to find a journalism job.
But at the end of the memo, something even more bizarre is said:
“Our new budget includes an ambitious expansion of our web and international operations, both for the Journal and for Newswires, where we are adding 95 journalists over coming months. We also have secured a generous investment in a state-of-the-art editing and publishing system. “
So they’re going to eliminate 50 jobs and then hire 95 people? What type of economy does News Corp. seem to think they’re floundering in? And hire a state-of-the-art editing system? So the computer will do the editing? I can imagine how that will look.
“JP Morgan investor see there stock sin.”