WSJ op-ed editor moves to the news side to run features

Tunku Varadarajan, the op-ed editor of the Wall Street Journal, is leaving the free-market oriented editorial page for a job in the news section, according to the Dealbreaker web site.

John Carney wrote, “The paper famously has maintained a strict separation between its news and editorial sides, a division some have likened to a separation of ‘church and state’ or a bank’s ‘Chinese Wall’ (except, you know, one that works). There’s no word yet on the reasons for Varadarajan’s move. Maybe its just that he kept having trouble finding the editorial page in the newly miniature version of the paper.”

Actually the SAJA forum reports that Varadarajan is becoming the paper’s assistant managing editor for features.

Journal managing editor Paul Steiger wrote in a memo, “Tunku will work closely with me, Dan Hertzberg, Mike Miller and Edward Felsenthal, among others, on finding ways to broaden the range of our feature coverage throughout the paper. I’m making this move at a time when our features and news features are riding high, from the centerpiece on Saturdays back through all the section fronts six days a week. Having the fresh eye of someone with Tunku’s record of success – most recently in broadening out and invigorating the edit page’s op-ed features – will help us keep ahead of the competition at a time when other publications, both new and old, are seeking to steal our approach.”

Varadarajan has been at the Journal since 2000. He previously was an editorial writer for the London Times and later worked for the British paper in Madrid and as its New York bureau chief.

Varadarajan is a former chief TV and media critic for the paper and columnist for OpinionJournal.com, a WSJ sister site. He is a former Oxford law professor who turned to journalism at the age of 32.