Dow Jones confirms split with Mossberg and Swisher, plans to launch new tech conference
Wall Street Journal and All Things D Decide Not To Renew Agreement At The End Of the Year — For years, Dow Jones/The Wall Street Journal has enjoyed working with Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher …
Context & Ripple Effects
A late-August report had characterized a separation between Dow Jones and AllThingsD as unconfirmed. The decision not to renew the agreement at year-end turns that anticipated split into a defined break between Dow Jones, The Wall Street Journal, and the Mossberg-Swisher operation.
Dow Jones is pairing the separation with plans for its own technology conference, signaling that the Journal intends to retain a direct presence in a business where editorial brands and live events reinforce each other.
First-order effects
- Dow Jones and The Wall Street Journal will end their AllThingsD agreement at year-end and begin building a technology conference under their own banner.
- Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher lose the Dow Jones/Journal partnership that had supported their AllThingsD work, forcing a separation of the editorial relationship and the parent company.
Second-order effects
- Dow Jones's planned conference gives the Journal a direct route to technology-industry executives, sponsors, and attendees rather than relying on the departing partnership.
- Mossberg and Swisher must establish an independent platform for their technology coverage and event relationships, while Dow Jones must prove its conference can carry the Journal brand without them.
Third-order effects
- The break points to a media model in which publishers seek to own both the editorial product and the event business, rather than share those economics with star-led ventures.
- If similar arrangements unwind, prominent journalists' audience and industry access become more portable assets, increasing the leverage of individual editorial brands in negotiations with publishers.
The trend: Technology media is moving toward tighter publisher ownership of event franchises while high-profile editorial talent increasingly operates as a separable business asset.