Crooked WSJ twists and turns to fake circulation figures

WSJ accused of unorthodox boost to circulation - Yahoo! Finance: "The Guardian newspaper reported Wednesday that it had seen emails and documents showing that The Wall Street Journal funneled money through third parties to a company that was buying up copies of the Journal and boosting its European circulation.

The Guardian did not make the emails and documents public but, if its description is accurate, the Journal was effectively buying its own papers and inflating its circulation figures -- something that could allow it to charge advertisers extra.

The Guardian claimed that the Journal engaged in what it described as a "bizarre scheme" aimed at funneling money to the Netherlands-based Executive Learning Partnership, which at the time was buying thousands of copies of the Journal every day at deeply discounted prices.

Such discounted sales are not unusual in the newspaper business and the Guardian and the Journal both say that the purchases by ELP were approved by the Britain's circulation watchdog."

'via Blog this'