August 15, 2013

The State Of The Union: A Message From Bob

News Corp. is dead! Long live News Corp!

This year marks a momentous change for the company. As you know, DJ's parent — News Corp. — has split into two new entities. Our new parent is News Corp — but as far as we members of IAPE are concerned, nothing has changed.

Yes, the management teams of News Corp and Dow Jones & Co. are exploring new avenues of doing business, seeking new ways to generate revenue and to increase DJ's position in the news and information industry. As part of this process, management at DJ is mulling changes in the business model and discloses those changes periodically.

But Dow Jones & Co. still exists as a corporate entity and the collective-bargaining agreement that was negotiated by management and IAPE-represented employees — our contract — remains in place. The contract continues to govern the way we — IAPE-represented employees — and management work together for our mutual benefit. [By the way, the current contract expires at the end of June 2014, and we will embark upon negotiations for a new CBA a few months before then. More on that at a later date.]