One of News Corp.’s chief deputies in Europe, Andrew Langhoff, has resigned because of a scandal at the media conglomerate’s flagship newspaper, the Wall Street Journal.
According to the Guardian, the Journal channeled money through several European companies so that it could secretly buy thousands of copies of its own paper at discounted rates and enhance its circulation numbers.
The Journal, which is owned by News Corp. through Dow Jones & Co., reported that Langhoff resigned due to a violation of journalistic ethics.
An internal investigation revealed that a pair of articles in the Journal’s European edition were influenced by a deal with a Dutch consulting firm, Executive Leadership Partnership (ELP).
However, the Guardian’s Nick Davies, the reporter who broke open the phone hacking scandal, believes he has uncovered a different reason -- the circulation scam.
Citing Audit Bureau of Circulation figures, the Guardian reported that the scam accounted for 41 percent of the Journal's European edition's sales (31,000 out of 75,000).
The journalistic scandal the Journal blames for Langhoff’s departure is just part of that equation. According to the Guardian, in order to secure ELP’s cooperation in this larger scheme, the Journal promised favorable coverage of the firm.
