NYT: Brauchli frustrated with lack of control at WSJ

Wall Street Journal managing editor Marcus Brauchli has expressed frustration with changes mandated by the paper’s new owners and feels like he doesn’t have control even though he is its top editor, writes Richard Perez-Pena of the New York Times.

Perez-Pena writes that Brauchli questioned the decision to move the paper toward one that covered more traditional news and away from being a business newspaper.

Perez-Pena also writes, “Journal newsroom employees say that Mr. Murdoch and the publisher he installed, Robert J. Thomson, have made it clear that they think the paper has too many editors, and have instructed Mr. Brauchli to thin the ranks, potentially making room in the headcount for more reporters. Two people briefed on Mr. Brauchli’s thinking said that had become a major point of contention.

“Under an agreement between the News Corporation and the Bancroft family, who owned a controlling interest in Dow Jones for more than a century, sole power over the newsroom was to rest with the managing editor — Mr. Brauchli — and Mr. Murdoch could not remove him without the consent of a committee of independent overseers. But even the people within Dow Jones who supported that pact said that it would be all but impossible to keep the new owner from having his way.”

Read more here.