Alix Freedman — a veteran of The Wall Street Journal for almost 30 years — is leaving the paper to join Reuters. John Koblin of WWD just tweeted that Robert Thomson said, “We all owe Alix a great debt for what she has contributed to the paper and the culture.” Freedman will serve as Reuters’ Global Editor for Ethics and Standards.

This is the third Journal vet to leave the paper in the past two days. Just yesterday, it lost Nick Wingfield and Amy Chozick to The New York Times.

A couple hours ago we told you about The Wall Street Journal snagging The Financial Times’ Francesco Guerrera, and now we have a few more moves to report. Alix Freedman has been named Page One Editor, Elyse Tanouye is taking over Freedman’s spot as Deputy Managing Editor, and Dennis Berman will replace Tanouye as Corporate Editor. Rick Brooks was also named Senior Deputy Editor of the paper’s Money & Investing section.

Robert Thomson, Editor-in-Chief of Dow Jones & Company and Managing Editor of the Journal, had this to say about these moves:

Alix and Elyse are both great journalists and leaders. There was no tougher reporter than Alix Freedman, and her commitment to investigative reporting and enterprise journalism are renowned. Elyse transformed the Marketplace section of the Journal and is a beacon of integrity for all at Dow Jones. Dennis is a legendary reporter who will bring energy and deep knowledge to his new role, which is at the very heart of the paper. Rick, a talented and wise editor, will work closely with Francesco Guerrera, our new Editor of Money & Investing.

 

So it turns out that Twitter can be very helpful to journalists, whether they’re promoting their own work, seeking sources or just looking for what everyone is talking about. In fact, it’s the perfect way to find out what everyone’s talking about.

But it’s no surprise that media companies like News Corp. want to make sure their reporters remain unbiased and impartial even with social media Web sites like Facebook and Twitter luring them over to the dark side. Yesterday, Wall Street Journal editor Alix Freedman sent an email to staffers outlining new conduct guidelines that specifically instruct reporters how to handle themselves on Twitter.

“Business and pleasure should not be mixed on services like Twitter,” the guidelines said. “Common sense should prevail, but if you are in doubt about the appropriateness of a Tweet or posting, discuss it with your editor before sending.”

Can you imagine a reporter going to an editor to ask permission to Tweet something in particular? There are actually a number of Journalers that do Tweet regularly, and we’re curious how these new rules will effect them, if at all. Does this mean they’ll stop Tweeting links to their own articles?

One thing’s for sure, the new rules aren’t stopping anyone from Tweeting. Earlier today, WSJ Deputy Managing Editor Alan S. Murray added clarification to the rules via Twitter. “We’re encouraging people to use Twitter and Facebook. Just encouraging them to use some common sense when they do,” he tweeted.