WSJ names deputy editors, executive editor

Incoming Wall Street Journal managing editor Gerard Baker sent out the following announcement on Thursday:

I am pleased to announce important changes to the editorial leadership of Dow Jones.

Rebecca Blumenstein and Matt Murray are promoted to Deputy Editors in Chief. Almar Latour is promoted to Executive Editor.  All are effective January 1.

Over the last five years, under Robert Thomson‘s visionary leadership, we have expanded our audience, broadened the range of our coverage, and cemented the dominance of our core journalism in the rapidly changing landscape of news. A critical element of our success has been the steady demolition of the walls that separate the two sides of our business, the Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones Newswires. The dual objectives have been complementary and symmetric: to infuse the Journal’s depth and explanatory reporting with more of the speed and agility of Newswires and to augment Newswires’ pace and vigor with the Journal’s unrivaled range and penetrating insight. The next phase of our growth will be driven in significant measure by the completion of that integration, the creation of a single and indissoluble news organization uniquely equipped to supply a continuous stream of scoops, analysis, features and penetrating investigations: in real time, on our digital platforms and in the newspaper, to a global audience of hundreds of millions.

To that end we need an editorial leadership that is tasked to meet the challenge.

Both Rebecca and Matt will deputize for me across the full range of my responsibilities and will work closely together and with me in all our activities.

In addition, they will each oversee the two broad strands of our journalism.  Rebecca will be Deputy Editor in charge of news content. She will deploy her consummate leadership skills and editorial and managerial talents to oversee Dow Jones/WSJ newsgathering, our integrated bureaux and news centers around the globe.

Matt will be Deputy Editor in charge of our output.  Equipped with his impeccable judgment, he will be responsible for all of Dow Jones/WSJ platforms – real time news, digital products and the paper.  He will edit the Journal in my absence.

Almar will assume responsibility for our editorial strategy around the world. Like Matt and Rebecca, Almar is a Dow Jones veteran who has played a crucial role in creating the modern Journal.  His initial task in his new role will be to lead the integration of Newswires and the Journal, a mission he has already accomplished with skill and dispatch in Asia.

Mike Miller remains the Journal’s senior Deputy Managing Editor.  He will continue to oversee and expand our features output, which has grown exponentially, to popular and critical acclaim in the last few years, under his creative tutelage.

Neal Lipschutz remains Managing Editor, Dow Jones Newswires, where his unrivaled experience and leadership acumen will help complete the historic transformation of Newswires.  Almar, Mike and Neal will all report to me.

 In coming days I will be announcing a new Page One Editor and making some other changes. In the meantime please join me in congratulating Rebecca, Matt and Almar on their new roles.