Returning 'Journal' Staffers Have Mixed Reactions

By: Ted Shaffrey, Associated Press Writer (AP) Wall Street Journal editorial staffers returned to the newspaper's headquarters next to ground zero on Monday for the first time since they were evacuated in the Sept. 11 attacks.

"It's strange now to have that huge space in the sky," said Technology Editor Laurie Hays, whose office overlooks the ragged expanse where the twin towers once stood. "It's very disorienting."

Hays was among the first 70 editors, reporters, and other workers who reported to the newspaper's headquarters at 1 World Financial Center in lower Manhattan. Assistant Managing Editor Cathy Panagoulias, who is coordinating the return, said she expects the move to be completed by next Monday, with 400 staffers returning.

That's about half the number who worked at the newspaper's headquarters before the attack. In October, the company announced that copy editing desks, pagination, and some corporate departments would be transferred to the South Brunswick, N.J., campus of parent Dow Jones & Co. as part of a transition planned independent of the attack.

"We were very lucky on Sept. 11; we didn't lose any of our staffers," said Panagoulias, whose newspaper published a Pulitzer-Prize winning edition despite evacuating and working from makeshift offices. "It's what happened across the street that was the big tragedy."

The Journal's offices, which occupied seven floors of the 40-story building at 1 World Financial Center, were evacuated after the second plane struck. Windows were broken and piles of silt and debris filled the building, but it did not suffer structural damage.

Since the attacks, editorial staffers have been working from the company's New Jersey offices, along with rented space in SoHo and other parts of Manhattan.

The return was delayed by concerns of airborne asbestos, but the Environmental Protection Agency and the employees union eventually approved the move back after repeated cleanings. Other tenants began returning in December.

For many Journal reporters and editors, the return is not an easy one. A union survey in June found that 72% of respondents wanted the Journal to find permanent space elsewhere.

"There's a number of people who didn't want to come back; I'm not one of them," Personal Finance Editor Neil Templin said. "Everybody in the country was attacked on Sept. 11, and people in New York particularly, but I'm not one of the people who dreaded coming back here. I can't tell you why, but I'm not spooked by it."

Reporter Ianthe Jeanne Dugan said she was uneasy about the return for months, and she's still worried that air quality will suffer once construction begins at ground zero. But she's not worried about another terrorist attack.

"I don't think if we get attacked again it will be here," said Dugan. "They can't top what they did."

But the neighborhood has changed, Dugan said.

"It's funny seeing tourists in the lobby, with shorts and cameras," Dugan said, referring to the visitors who now flock to ground zero. "It used to be all business people in suits and ties."

Company executives said they are pleased the paper's headquarters is back in lower Manhattan, where the Journal was founded in 1889.

"We said all along we were coming back here," said Steven Goldstein, a spokesman for Dow Jones. For one, the company has a lease on the space until 2005. With a smaller Manhattan staff, it will sublet four floors for the remainder of the lease.

"We haven't determined if after 2005 we'll stay in this building," Goldstein said, "but we're definitely going to stay in lower Manhattan."