Wall Street Journal Cuts Fashion Staff

by Terri Potratz | February 6, 2009 at 06:55 pm

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The Wall Street Journal announced yesterday that they would be closing their fashion and retail group based out of New York. The layoffs affected 14 people, and 11 took a buyout.

The luxury and retail advertising that the newspaper was targeting is also being targeted by the new WSJ magazine, so efforts are being directed towards developing the new quarterly publication rather than the fashion section of the paper.

In a memo sent to staff, managing editor Robert Thompson said the paper would maintain fashion coverage. However, the fashion department will be downsized from a full-time staff of nine people, to five. With Fashion Week starting in one week, they may just be insane. Sources tell Forbes.com that Teri Agins is out, while columnist Christina Binkley will stay on along with the group's top editor, Lisa Bannon. Other staffers have been asked to reapply for three remaining open positions in the style section.

The WSJ "Heard on the Runway" blog is a primary source of industry news; one can only hope the layoffs will not see a decline in the quality of that online fashion resource.