'WSJ' Confirms, and Details, Major Editorial Re-Alignment

By: E&P Staff Reports surfaced on Tuesday, confirmed in spades this morning, as The Wall Street Journal announced major changes in its editorial structure "that is aimed at better positioning the Journal to benefit from the
profound changes sweeping the news business," it said in a release.

"This new organizational change will fully complete the integration of the Journal's print and online news operations and will simplify our
international news structure, at a time when the company is expanding and has a stronger presence worldwide."

Editors will take on their new roles starting in July.

Marcus W. Brauchli, the new managing editor of The Wall Street Journal, succeeding Paul Steiger, said in a statement that "simply to maintain our standing, we must adapt to constant change."

He added, in a memo to staffers: "These are large changes. I know it will take some time to digest them. But this is a strong team and I look forward to working closely with all of them and all of you. I am confident they will position us to be maximally competitive in a fast-changing world, and enable the Journal to thrive and best serve our readers in print and online."

The key organizational changes in the Journal's news operations include the following, according to the release, as outlined below.

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-- Bill Grueskin, managing editor of the Wall Street Journal Online, has been named deputy managing editor for news. In his role, Mr. Grueskin's mission is to draw on the news resources at Dow Jones to ensure that each edition of the Journal -- Online, Asia, Europe or the U.S. -- is getting the right content at the right time, without detracting from our core commitment to the long-form, deeply reported narrative and analytic journalism that defines the Journal.

-- Alan Murray has been named executive editor, online...Dave Callaway, managing editor of MarketWatch will report to him.

-- Mike Miller, for the last seven years a Page One editor and before that editor of the Marketplace page, will become the Journal franchise's deputy managing editor for enterprise journalism. He will oversee the Marketplace section, under editor Melinda Beck; the Personal Journal section, under editor Hilary Stout; Weekend Journal, under Eben Shapiro; the Pursuits section, under Tom Weber; and the special reports, under Larry Rout.

-- Dan Hertzberg, now senior deputy managing editor, will become deputy managing editor for international news.

-- Laurie Hays, the national news editor, will become deputy managing editor for projects.

-- Mike Williams, now editor in Europe and the editor responsible for the Journal's energy coverage, will return to New York this summer as page one editor. A veteran foreign correspondent, Mike has also been a deputy foreign editor.
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Also today, the union at the Journal warned of job cuts coming if Rupert Murdoch takes over.

The full story can be found here