Brauchli received $6.4 million to leave Wall Street Journal

Michael Calderone of Politico reports that former Wall Street Journal managing editor Marcus Brauchli, now the executive editor at the Washington Post, received $6.4 million when he left the business newspaper after it was acquired by News Corp.

Calderone writes, “Previous reports have simply put the number in the ‘millions.’ But in Sarah Ellison‘s forthcoming book on the sale of Dow Jones, the ex-Journal media reporter writes that Brauchli walked away with $6.4 million.

“Brauchli, she writes, ‘was due $3 million regardless of how he left Dow Jones’ given his severance deal as a company executive. In addition, Brauchli’s attorney — D.C. power-broker Bob Barnett — negotiated an additional $3.4 million from News Corp.

“He’s not the only one that walked away with millions after the deal. Dow Jones chief executive Rich Zannino, who was only at the company about a year-and-a-half, and advocated for the sale to Murdoch, left with $20 million after the deal closed.

“Ellison’s book, ‘War at the Wall Street Journal,’ will not be published until May, but some of the details were revealed by David Carr on the NYT’s Media Decoder blog. I received a review copy from the publisher.”

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