A couple of follow-ups on yesterday’s NYT report about Dow Jones’ (NYSE: DJ) decision to keep CNBC ads off MarketWatch.com and WSJ.com for Monday’s launch of the Fox Business Network. The
WSJ says the decision was made in-house—“it isn’t uncommon for a business rival to refuse to run an ad for a competing entity… but it is awkward”— and that Fox execs were out of the loop until the deed was done. At issue, in part: MarketWatch and Fox Business Network have been working on a traffic-driving deal between the two sites. As the story from “people familiar with the matter” goes, the online ad rep didn’t realize the significance of the Oct. 15 date when the deal was signed Sept. 11. Last week, Consumer Media Group COO Todd Larsen heard about it and told his boss Gordon Crovitz, who told his boss Rich Zannino. They decided the $87,000 CNBC ads should be moved to another day. Then Larsen contacted FBN. News Corp. (NYSE: NWS) told the WSJ it had nothing to do with the deal.

NYT: Some of the replacement ads on both sites were from FBN with links to foxbusiness.com. “In both cases, ads for Fox Business Network turned up exactly where CNBC had contracted for its ads to be.”