THE SENIOR commercial executive at the European edition of Rupert Murdoch's financial newspaper, the Wall Street Journal,has resigned amid claims he helped to orchestrate an unethical circulation support scheme.
Andrew Langhoff’s departure follows an internal investigation which showed that two articles in the paper had been written because of an agreement with a Dutch consultancy.
The Journal'scirculation department struck a deal with Executive Learning Partnership that involved bulk copies of the paper being sold to ELP for distribution to students and others to boost the newspaper's circulation, according to an article yesterday in the Journal.
The Journalalso channelled money through European companies, in effect to fund the purchase of its own newspaper at a knock-down rate, thereby misleading readers and advertisers about the Journal's true circulation.
An initial statement from Dow Jones, the Journal'sMurdoch-owned parent company, made no reference to the paper-buying scam but after follow-up questions, Dow Jones disclosed the unethical deal saying the company had a "zero tolerance" approach to "even the appearance of a breach of ethical standards". – (Agencies)