Frontrunners to replace Steiger as WSJ's newsroom leader

Speculation in The Wall Street Journal’s newsroom is building about who will replace managing editor Paul Steiger as the head of its editorial operations. A winner in the race is likely to be announced in the next couple of weeks.

Who replaces Steiger is closely watched in business journalism because the position is considered to be the most powerful in the field.

There are apparently three front runners for the position, while other names have also been mentioned.

According to people who work at the paper, Steiger would like Marcus W. Brauchli to replace him. Brauchli would apparently continue to continue Steiger’s legacy at the paper.

Brauchli is a deputy managing editor for the Journal. Previously, he was China bureau chief, a roving feature writer in Southeast and South Asia, a correspondent covering economics and finance in Japan, correspondent to Scandinavia and a reporter for AP-Dow Jones News Service in Hong Kong.

Brauchli has won several journalism awards, been a commentator for CNBC and Asia Business News and appeared at a number of conferences on international issues and economics.

But others being mentioned as strong contenders are Daniel Hertzberg and Paul Ingrassia. Hertzberg is the senior deputy managing editor at the paper, while Ingrassia is president of Dow Jones Newswires and close with publisher Gordon Crovitz.

Hertzberg, a 1968 graduate from the University of Chicago, won a Pulitzer Prize in 1988 for his coverage of the 1987 stock market crash. He joined the paper in 1977 as a reporter in the New York bureau in 1977, covering the New York City fiscal crisis. In 1987, Hertzberg and former Journal reporter James B. Stewart won a Gerald Loeb deadline-writing award for their coverage of the Ivan Boesky insider-trading scandal.

Ingrassia, whose brother Larry is business editor of the New York Times, won a Pulitzer Prise in 1993 for beat reporting with Joseph Write at the Journal for their coverage of the management turmoil at General Motors. They also received the Gerald Loeb Award that year in the deadline/beat writing category for the same coverage.

In 1994, Ingrassia and White wrote the book “Comeback: The Fall and Rise of the American Automobile Industry.” He’s a graduate of the University of Illinois and the University of Wisconsin.

Ingrassia is apparently the favorite of many on the business side of the paper because he is perceived as someone who would make changes in the newsroom, whereas Brauchli is considered as maintaining the status quo.

Other names mentioned in the running are Ingrassia’s brother, who it is said was approached, deputy managing editor Alix Freedman and longtime Washington bureau chief Alan Murray, who is currently an assistant managing editor. Freedman has been with the paper since 1984 and won a Pulitzer Prize.

Steiger, who became ME in 1991, has overseen dramatic redesigns of the Journal, additions of popular new sections to broaden readership, plus a push of breaking news to the Web. On his watch, Journal’s reporters and editors have won 14 Pulitzer Prizes.