New editor at Post cites an era of change

Washington Post Publisher Katharine Weymouth introduced Marcus W. Brauchli on Tuesday as the new executive editor of one of the nation’s most influential newspapers, but one that shares the industry’s struggles with declining revenue and shrinking print readership.

“It is a great honor and possibly the most challenging thing I have ever done to stand before this room and to join you in this great institution,” Brauchli told a newsroom gathering. “For me, the Post has always been a beacon of what is right in American journalism.”

The choice of Brauchli -- who earlier this year was pressured into leaving his job as top editor of the Wall Street Journal -- came as a mild surprise because the top American newspapers tend to promote from within their ranks.

The onetime foreign correspondent faces several major challenges: adapting to a Washington power culture with which he’s unfamiliar, merging the Post’s sometimes fractious print and online operations and trying to maintain the journalistic excellence that this year brought the Post six Pulitzer Prizes, even as declining ad revenue is forcing staff cuts.

“Change is bearing down upon all of us equally, and we will all be called upon to navigate this critical passage,” Brauchli told the newsroom. “I am confident we will meet every challenge and thrive.”

When he assumes his post Sept. 8, the Colorado native and Columbia University graduate will become just the third Post editor in more than 40 years -- following Ben Bradlee, who led the paper through its storied coverage of the Watergate scandal, and Leonard Downie Jr., who oversaw the newsroom for almost 17 years before announcing in June that he was stepping down.

The 47-year-old Brauchli spent most of his career at Dow Jones, the Wall Street Journal’s parent company. He rose quickly as an editor after 15 years as a reporter overseas.

Brauchli took the top job at the Journal not long before Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. took over the publication in December. The new editor soon found his decisions undercut. He left the job in April.

Bill Grueskin, former editor of the Journal’s website and now dean of academic affairs at the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism, said Brauchli was “a very important ally for the [Journal] website” in trying to push print-focused journalists to post their stories on wsj.com quickly -- augmenting them with video, audio and other storytelling devices.

Washingtonpost.com draws 9.4 million unique visitors a month, making it one of the most popular news sites on the Web, but the site and the print paper sometimes have struggled to work together. Some insiders expect Brauchli to move the website from Virginia to the headquarters in Washington.

“The cultural schism between print and online seems to be more acute at the Post,” said Tom Rosenstiel, director of the Project for Excellence in Journalism.

Brauchli and other executives visited the Post’s Web offices Tuesday. “The issue for all news media is that convergence is upon us,” Brauchli said in an e-mail later. “We are real-time, we are daily, we are digital, we are print, we are text, we are video. The Post website understands this, I think.”

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james.rainey@latimes.com