Layoffs Hit The Wall Street Journal

The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) has announced a major restructuring of its health, science, and education coverage teams, resulting in the layoffs of approximately a dozen reporters and editors. 

The move, detailed in an internal memo from Editor-in-Chief Emma Tucker, aims to streamline operations by reintegrating health coverage into the business desk—where it originated before the COVID-19 pandemic—and merging the science team into the existing education group under National Affairs. 

Tucker acknowledged the impact in her memo: “I recognize that change can be unsettling,” while emphasizing the goal of creating “a single, cohesive reporting group” for health-related stories.

This is part of a broader wave of newsroom reorganizations at the News Corp-owned publication, which has seen multiple rounds of cuts throughout 2025 despite reporting record profits and subscriber growth. 

The layoffs coincide with similar moves at other outlets, including NBC News, which eliminated 150 roles across its diversity-focused verticals on the same day.

Key Details of the Restructuring

• Health Coverage: Returning to the Corporate group under Kate Linebaugh, this bureau will now encompass business aspects like health insurers, pharmaceuticals, and the economics of health care, merged with existing personal-health reporting. WSJ plans to recruit a new health bureau chief to lead this unified team.
• Science Coverage: Folded into the Education team, which remains part of the National Affairs section. This shift reduces the standalone science team's footprint.
• Education Coverage: Unaffected structurally but absorbs the science integration.
• Affected Staff: Around 12 positions eliminated, including long-time contributors. Notably, Stefanie Ilgenfritz, the health and science editor with over 35 years at WSJ, was among those departing. 

Ilgenfritz led award-winning work, including a 2015 Pulitzer Prize-winning series on Medicare fraud and a 2025 Pulitzer finalist on the same topic, as well as the paper's acclaimed COVID-19 coverage.

Tucker praised the outgoing staff in her memo, stating, “I want to thank them for their many contributions to the Journal, particularly Stefanie Ilgenfritz.” Specific names of other laid-off reporters and editors beyond Ilgenfritz have not been publicly disclosed in initial reports.