OPC board member Marcus W. Brauchli resigned as managing editor of The Wall Street Journal April 22 while Rupert Murdoch, the paper’s owner, was remaking some of The Journal’s contents.
Murdoch bought Dow Jones & Company, The Journal’s parent, last December, and he is making the paper more of a general-interest paper with shorter articles, more coverage of politics, culture and sports, and fewer business articles on the front page. The Murdoch-owned New York Post wrote, “Brauchli’s departure follows a redesign of the business paper intended to beef up political and general news coverage and put it in closer competition with The New York Times.”
Robert Thomson, 47, The Journal’s publisher, said the paper will invest $6 million a year to add four pages for international news. With the resignation of Brauchli, Thomson was appointed managing editor. Thomson became publisher last December after working as editor of The Financial Times and The Times of London. Thomson and Brauchli have known each other since the 1980s when they were correspondents in Beijing.
Brauchli, 46, who was appointed editor last year before Murdoch bought the paper, said in a message to his staff, “Now that the ownership transition has taken place, I have come to believe the new owners should have a managing editor of their choosing.” The New York Times said Brauchli, who is staying on as a consultant to Murdoch’s News Corporation, supported some of the changes and resisted others.
In another development, Murdoch offered to buy Newsday from the Tribune Company for $580 million. But Murdoch withdrew his offer after two other organizations bid to buy Newsday. Mortimer B. Zuckerman, owner of the New York Daily News, offered the same amount as Murdoch did, $580 million. Then Cablevision offered more for Newsday, $650 million, and the Tribune Company accepted its bid. Both Cablevision and Newsday are based on Long Island.