WSJ editor Thomson laments loss of Gaudoin

Wall Street Journal managing editor Robert Thomson sent out the following announcement to the staff on the departure of WSJ. magazine editor Tina Gaudoin:

Tina Gaudoin, editor of WSJ. magazine, will be moving to London with her family for personal reasons and will be stepping down from her current role. Even though she is certainly irreplaceable, Tina is keen for the transition to a new editor to be as smooth as we can collectively make it, so she will edit the September and October issues of the magazine, and assist us in the quest to find a worthy successor.

Many magazines have a very short and painful life, but Tina and the team have created a magazine that has already become an important franchise for The Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones. It is so obviously superior to other magazines in its class, though even to suggest that they are in its class is to be guilty of misrepresentation. While advertising is none of the editorial department’s business, more than 80 new advertisers have been brought into the Journal through WSJ. and many of them have advertised online as well as in print.

WSJ. has had an impact far beyond our borders, raising our profile in Asia and Europe, and has broadened the range of in-house pictorial and design skills. One measure of its impact is that, as other magazines were trimming and cutting in the past year, we extended the print run in the US and increased the frequency of the magazine. There is little doubt that the frequency will continue to increase in coming years. For that achievement, we all owe Tina an enormous debt.

Tina will stay on the masthead as Contributing Editor and is planning to work with Patience Wheatcroft in London on European fashion and luxury coverage. Her presence will live on in the pages of WSJ. for many, many years to come.