Oversight panel faults handling of WSJ editor's departure
NEW YORK—An editorial oversight committee at The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday faulted News Corp.'s handling of the departure of the paper's top editor last week, saying it should have been notified earlier.
The group said in a statement Tuesday that while its mandate did not specifically address the issue of an editor's resignation, the fact that it was informed only afterward "failed to meet the letter and spirit of the agreement."
A News Corp. spokeswoman declined to comment.
The committee was set up last year as a condition of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.'s $5 billion purchase of Dow Jones & Co., which closed in December.
Several members of Dow Jones' controlling shareholders, the Bancroft family, had expressed concern about keeping the paper's news coverage high quality and free from corporate interference under Murdoch. Murdoch has said those concerns were unfounded.
The five-member committee must sign off on the appointment or removal of certain key editors including the managing editor, the top news position at the Journal and the one Marcus Brauchli relinquished last week.
Brauchli, who is remaining on at News Corp. in a consulting role, called the decision amicable and stressed that he had not seen any signs of corporate interference.
Brauchli's departure came four months after News Corp. completed its purchase of Dow Jones. Brauchli said in a statement April 22 that he had come to the conclusion that the paper's new owners "should have a managing editor of their choosing."
After the deal closed, News Corp. named Robert Thomson, a former editor of Murdoch's The Times newspaper in London, to the position of publisher but without the usual business-side responsibilities that come with that role. Instead, Thomson had broad editorial oversight of the paper and other Dow Jones properties.
News Corp. has been moving quickly to remake the Journal, adding more political and overseas news, ramping up plans for a glossy magazine launch, rearranging the placement of stories, and adding a regular sports page.
Murdoch has said he intends to position the Journal to compete more directly with the national readers and advertisers of The New York Times.
In their statement, which was released by committee chairman Thomas J. Bray, former editorial page editor at The Detroit News, the group said News Corp. officials have pledged to keep the group "thoroughly informed" during the process of hiring a new managing editor.
The group said it didn't see a way to "unresign" Brauchli once he had already stepped down, but it said it intends to fully exercise its role in approving the next managing editor, and to "take the steps necessary to prevent a repeat of the process it has just been through."
In addition to Bray, the committee also includes Louis D. Boccardi, former president of The Associated Press; Jack Fuller, retired president of Tribune Co.'s newspaper division; Nicholas Negroponte, co-founder of the Media Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; and Susan B. Phillips, dean of the business school at George Washington University.
Committee members didn't immediately return messages seeking further comment Tuesday.
