Andrew Langhoff, one of Murdoch‘s most senior European executives, resigned on Tuesday after the Journal said he had inappropriately agreed to publish two articles as part of a commercial agreement with a Dutch company. On Wednesday the Guardian reported that the Dutch company had been involved in a scheme designed to artificially boost the newspaper‘s sales figures.

The scheme included a contract struck by WSJE‘s circulation department and a Dutch consulting firm, called Executive Learning Partnership, which ran from May 2009 until April 2011 and involved sponsorship in the paper and an agreement to publish articles promoting the firm.