KANN GIVES ANGRY WSJ-ERS A NEW LESSON IN CAPITALISM By PAUL THARP
Peter Kann is getting a drubbing from his angry employees at Dow Jones in a revolt over his cost-cutting.
At company-wide "town hall" meetings in the last two days, about 500 angry employees bombarded the Dow Jones chairman and his senior management with questions that, in the past, would never have been uttered, say insiders.
The employees, including scribes at the Wall Street Journal, Barron's and Dow Jones News, even questioned whether capitalism was a valid economic system.
"It's a totally different mood now - it surprised Kann and caught him off guard," said one veteran employee at the media company.
"Kann's usually smooth and unflappable, but he was rattled at how outspoken everyone was."
The company has fired scores of senior journalists and slashed other costs to save money. Kann said more layoffs could be coming if an Iraqi war erupts and doesn't end quickly.
In one angry exchange from the floor, an employee demanded to know why only the non-executive employees got axed and why management and shareholders "didn't suffer any pain."
"It's not an egalitarian place; no corporation is," Kann answered.
"Why not?" another employee asked.
Kann, visibly flustered, said, "Well, that's one of the dangers you face living in a capitalist society."
Leaflets distributed by employees said that Kann and his board are firing employees instead of cutting dividends to shareholders because the Bancroft family, a major shareholder, "would throw out" Kann and his team if they tinkered with dividends.
At another point, Kann tried to talk down one acrimonious exchange by saying, "I'm the highest-paid person in the room, and I don't expect you to have any sympathy with me." Kann got a salary raise last year to $921,000 from $841,167.