Journal Editor No Longer Felt Welcome

Brauchli: Murdoch Should Have Own Person in the Job

Marcus Brauchli resigned yesterday as the Wall Street Journal's top editor, saying he believed the paper's new owner, Rupert Murdoch, should have his own person in the job.

Brauchli's decision, four months after Murdoch's takeover of parent company Dow Jones, triggered a review by a special committee set up to protect the newspaper's editorial independence. After speaking to Brauchli on a conference call, the panel -- which has the power to block the ouster of Brauchli and two other senior editors -- declined to intervene.

In a note to the staff, Brauchli made clear that he no longer felt welcome in the Murdoch era: "Now that the ownership transition has taken place, I have come to believe the new owners should have a managing editor of their choosing." Brauchli added, however, that "the new management scrupulously has avoided imposing any political or business viewpoints on our coverage . . . I am confident that our journalistic integrity remains intact."

Brauchli, 46, who has held the job for a year, will become a consultant to Murdoch's News Corp. Dow Jones says it is launching an immediate search for his replacement. No interim editor was named, making it unclear who is in charge of the newsroom.

In a statement, Murdoch said that "Marcus has been a terrific leader throughout the transition process and I have great respect for him."

The move buttresses the view of Murdoch critics who predicted that despite the establishment of the special committee, he would find a way to install his own choice at the top of a newspaper that was the crown jewel in a $5 billion acquisition. Some top reporters left the Journal as Murdoch, who has a history of political interference with his media properties, moved to take control. But others said they appreciated Murdoch boosting the paper's budget at a time of sharp cutbacks across the industry.

Some Journal staffers say Brauchli was opposed, at least in part, to the Murdoch mandate of broadening the paper's coverage of politics and other areas, out of concern that this would blur the Journal's identity as a business newspaper. They say he also grew tired of his every decision being scrutinized and apparently felt overshadowed by the new publisher, Robert Thomson, the former editor of Murdoch's Times of London.

In an interview last month, Brauchli seemed less than comfortable defending the paper's direction and chose his words carefully, especially when discussing Murdoch's role at the newspaper.

In a related development, the Journal confirmed that Murdoch's News Corp. is close to a deal to buy the Long Island paper Newsday from the Tribune Co. for about $580 million. This would mark Tribune's first sale since real estate mogul Sam Zell took control of the company in December. Murdoch already owns the New York Post, whose circulation area overlaps with that of Newsday, and has questioned whether federal antitrust regulators would approve the deal.

Post Editor Reassigned

Susan Glasser, who directed The Washington Post's campaign coverage as assistant managing editor for national news, said yesterday she is leaving that job to work on a project for Post Co. Chief Executive Donald Graham.

Executive Editor Leonard Downie Jr. decided to remove Glasser after a high-level committee of editors concluded that her aggressive management style had led to a serious decline in staff morale. The timing, in the middle of the campaign, was unusual.

Downie and Managing Editor Philip Bennett told the staff in a memo that "Susan has been a leader in spurring innovation in the national news report, especially in our political coverage, where she has introduced new forms of journalism and has helped make The Post a national leader in online coverage of the presidential campaign." They said no successor has been chosen. Downie declined to comment beyond his statement.

Glasser, a former Outlook editor, told her colleagues in a note that it had been "a privilege and an honor" to work with them. Asked about the morale issue, Glasser declined to address it in an e-mail, saying only that she is "very proud" of her 17-month tenure, from "rebuilding our politics team on the eve of these neverending elections to redesigning the A section to taking our journalism online in broader and more diverse ways than ever before."