Who will be the next WSJ editor?

Joe Pompeo of Vanity Fair Hive writes about speculation surrounding who would replace Wall Street Journal editor Gerard Baker.

Pompeo writes,”Others say Baker has been keen on moving into a new role outside of the Journal, after serving as editor-in-chief for the past five years and as deputy editor for a few years before that. There are whispers of a January timeline. It’s all scuttlebutt, but it’s red-hot scuttlebutt, the kind that even senior editors are gabbing about. ‘It’s heating up,’ a knowledgable insider said.

“One name that’s circulating as a possible successor to Baker is Emma Tucker, deputy editor of News Corp’s Times of London and a former reporter and editor at the Financial Times, perhaps reflecting a desire to see a woman in the editor’s chair at the Journal, where masthead diversity and gender pay disparity have been ongoing concerns. Murdoch likes to install Brits and Aussies even at his American titles, which also include the New York Post. Ever since his acquisition of the Journal 10 years ago, the top job there hasn’t gone to a Journal lifer, but rather a loyal News Corp lieutenant with an Anglo lilt. Baker himself is a Brit and a former Times of London and F.T. journalist; Robert Thomson, who preceded Baker and now serves as C.E.O. of News Corp, got his start Down Under before rising through the ranks of the F.T. and The Times of London. That’s not to say the Journal’s next editor won’t emerge from within. If there were an heir apparent internally, it would be Matt Murray, a long-serving veteran who was recently elevated to the No. 2 post of executive editor as part of a sweeping newsroom reorganization that’s still unfolding.”

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