Brauchli's departure first discussed months ago

A Wall Street Journal story for Wednesday’s paper about the resignation of managing editor Marcus Brauchli reports that News Corp. executives first began discussing his departure months ago.

Journal publisher Robert Thomson and Dow Jones CEO Les Hinton suggested in a meeting with Brauchli 10 days ago that it might be better to have their own person running the paper, the story noted.

Jessica Vascellaro, Merissa Marr and Sam Schechner wrote, “News Corp. executives had been discussing the possibility of Mr. Brauchli’s departure as early as several months ago, according to people familiar with the matter. At that time, the executives felt they should give him more time to prove he could bring about faster the changes they wanted, such as a redesign of the paper to better highlight general news. But some changes, such as a restructuring of the editing operations, didn’t move fast enough, according to people familiar with the matter.

“In recent weeks, Mr. Brauchli complained that he wasn’t always in the loop about new ideas. During a trip last week to the Los Angeles bureau, he told the staff that he only discovered the company had decided to print the U.S. edition of the newspaper in the U.K. when he was walking around a Dow Jones facility in New Jersey and spotted a layout, according to people familiar with the situation.

“After agreeing to vacate his position, Mr. Brauchli hired Washington lawyer Robert Barnett, whose clients include former President Bill Clinton, Sen. Hillary Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama, to negotiate on his behalf.”

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