The Independent Association of Publishers' Employees (IAPE) represents all categories of employees of Dow Jones & Company and the Wall Street Journal, including journalists, editors, printing plant workers, clerical and technical staff and sales staff. Workers in Information Technology are now the single largest group represented by the union. The IAPE was founded in 1946 as the Dow Jones Employees Association of New York. The union's name was intentionally broad to indicate that the union would represent not only Dow Jones' reporters and writers but all of the company's employees. The organization was renamed the Independent Association of Publishers' Employees in 1954 when it expanded to include the employees of The Wall Street Journal; the intent was also to indicate the future possibility of expanding the union's membership further. The local now includes workers at several Dow Jones-owned companies.

In 1977, when preparing for a union election in which he was challenging the incumbent president, Eric Frankland, a former IAPE vice-president, was denied permission to copy the names and addresses of IAPE members from union records. He filed suit against the union, but lost the case, which was then appealed to the New York Supreme Court. The final result, documented in the collection, was that Frankland was allowed to view the membership list, but would not be able to take notes, or make copies of the roster.

The IAPE maintained its independence through two failed attempts at affiliation with larger international unions, the Graphic Communications International Union in 1987, and the Communications Workers of America (CWA) in 1990. In 1996, under the leadership of president Ron Chen, the membership voted to approve affiliation to the CWA's Printing, Publishing and Media Workers Sector (PPMWS) becoming Local 1096 of the CWA. On January 1, 2000 the IAPE became part of the Newspaper Guild, which itself had affiliated with the CWA in 1998.

The IAPE has engaged in contentious negotiations with the management of Dow Jones and the Wall Street Journal over issues of job classification, pay rates, and workers' benefits. The union also became involved in the controversy over the Dow Jones Board of Directors' choice of Peter Kann as CEO. The IAPE was outspoken in protests over compensation agreements with Kann and his wife, Wall Street Journal publisher Karen Elliot House.