Thomson likely next WSJ publisher

Robert Thomson, who is the editor of The Times of London, will likely become the next publisher of The Wall Street Journal when News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch closes on his deal to acquire parent company Dow Jones & Co., writes Stephen Brook of The Guardian.

Thomson would replace current publisher Gordon Crovitz.

Brook wrote, “Despite the lack of any official comment from News Corporation about the move, it is understood Mr Murdoch has been privately spelling out his plans for Mr Thomson to other media executives.

“‘Rupert is being quite open about it,’ a senior US media executive told MediaGuardian.co.uk. ‘If you ring him and ask him out to lunch he will tell you.’

“‘It will probably happen in the first three months next year, but it could be the first six months,’ the source added.

“The executive said Mr Murdoch, the News Corp chairman and chief executive, had led him to be ‘90% certain’ that Mr Thomson would make the move, which would be part of an ‘Aussie invasion’ of New York-based Dow Jones.”

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