The British newspaper circulation watchdog is all set to launch an investigation into Rupert Murdoch's Wall Street Journal Europe.
The British newspaper circulation watchdog is all set to launch an investigation into Rupert Murdoch's Wall Street Journal Europe, following the resignation of its publisher amid allegations that it artificially boosted its sales figures.
The Audit Bureau of Circulations said it had "recently" decided to take another look at the sales scheme that sold bulk copies to students at cut prices on the basis of "new evidence", The Guardian reports.
Inquiries by the Guardian have revealed that the Journal had been channelling money through European companies in order to secretly buy thousands of copies of its own paper at a knock-down rate, misleading readers and advertisers about the Journal's true circulation.The bizarre scheme included a contract in which the Journal persuaded one company to co-operate by agreeing to publish articles that promoted its activities, the paper claimed.
Andrew Langhoff, European managing director of the Journal's parent company, Dow Jones and Co, which was bought by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation in July 2007, reportedly promoted the scam.
According to the report, Langhoff resigned on Tuesday.
The highly controversial activities were organised in London and focused on the Journal's European edition.
Top executives in New York, including Murdoch's righthand man, Les Hinton, were alerted to the problems last year by an internal whistleblower and apparently chose to take no action, the report said.
The Journal's decision secretly to buy its own papers began with an unusual circulation-boosting scheme called the 'Future Leadership Institute'.
In January 2008, the Journal linked up with European firms who sponsored seminars for university students who were likely to be future leaders.
The Journal rewarded the sponsors by publishing their names in the paper. The sponsors paid for that publicity by buying copies of the Journal at no more than five cents each. Those papers were then distributed to students.
The sponsors enjoyed a prestigious link to the Journal, and the Journal boosted its circulation.
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