What does matter, according to “The Man Who Owns the News,” is his third wife, Wendi Deng, who is 38 years his junior and controls him to the point of reading his e-mail.

(“Let’s recast this story as a triumphal, even uplifting tale of pluck and achievement,” Mr. Wolff writes, about how she came to marry such a powerful older man. “She’s not Becky Sharp, she’s Pip in ‘Great Expectations.’ ”)

That little detail about Deng resonates especially strongly since it reinforces the picture the Journal painted of her in 2000 (original) as a deft and serial manipulator of powerful men:

Her ticket out of China came in 1987, when she met a Los Angeles couple, Jake and Joyce Cherry... Mrs. Cherry says she had grown increasingly suspicious about Ms. Deng's relationship with her husband. Mrs. Cherry recalls discovering a cache of photographs her husband had taken of Ms. Deng in coquettish poses back in his hotel room in Guangzhou. Mr. Cherry confirms he had become infatuated with the young woman...

The Cherrys divorced, and Jake Cherry married Ms.Deng in February 1990. But that union didn't last. Mr. Cherry says that about four months after the wedding, he told Ms. Deng to leave because she had started spending time with a man named David Wolf...

Former colleagues describe Ms. Deng as having been adept at juggling the interests of News Corp.'s various units, which like to operate independently... She is said to have shown no hesitation about walking unannounced into a senior executive's office to discuss the latest Chinese entrepreneur she had met or government official she had contacted...

In early 1998, she first appeared at [Murdoch's] side, acting as his interpreter when he traveled to Shanghai and Beijing. By the summer of 1998, the Star TV staff was buzzing about romance between the pair. After dinner meetings in Hong Kong, they were observed holding hands. In May, Mr. Murdoch had separated from his wife of 31 years, Anna. The split surprised even his closest aides, who say they hadn't seen any sign of a rupture.

Can't wait to see how the book is reviewed in the Post and Journal!

Dear Colleagues,

I am delighted to announce that Gerard Baker is appointed Deputy
Editor-in-Chief of The Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones. Gerry has
had a distinguished career as a journalist at the BBC, Financial Times
and The Times of London. He has reported on subjects as diverse as the
exotica of Japanese politics, the minutiae of monetary policy, and the
frailties of the international financial system.

In his most recent role in Washington as US Editor and Assistant
Editor of The Times, Gerry has been a commentator and reporter, and so
has a clear and principled understanding of the objective of
objectivity. He will bring considerable energy and wit to the Journal,
and assist me in overseeing the transition of the paper, the website
and Newswires.

Our editing troika remain at the heart of the day-to-day decisions, as
do Mike Miller and Alix Freedman. Neal Lipschutz at Newswires will
continue to report directly to me and Alan Murray remains at the helm
of online. Gerry will edit the Journal in my absence and be tasked
with accelerating our development as a national paper of influence and
as an unrivalled international business news franchise.

Gerry, who will take up his new position in January, received a First
Class Honours degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from Corpus
Christi College at Oxford University. His first job after graduation
was at the Bank of England.

From 1988 to 1994, he worked at the BBC, initially as a producer in
London and New York, and then as Economics Correspondent. In 1994, he
joined the Financial Times, where he was Tokyo Correspondent, US
Economics Correspondent, and Washington Bureau Chief and Associate
Editor. Four years ago, he joined The Times, where he also oversaw the
development of the paper's US Edition and its successful American
website.

Robert.

Orwall is four-year Los Angeles bureau chief and a "WSJ Star", in the words of New York, and incidentally the editor of a major story on Rupert Murdoch's wife Wendi Deng. It looked like he had perhaps fallen out of favor when he was passed over for the job of Page One editor, but at Thomson's Journal chief of London bureau may be an even better gig.

One hopes Orwall was careful to build some cushion in his pay package against swings in the pound, now falling by the day. He replaces Emily Nelson, who is headed back to New York.

The memo:

With a background in features and investigations, Martin doesn't sound like he's part of an agenda to make the Journal's front more newsy and less analytic. But then one never knows!

Insights on the reshuffling? ryan@gawker.com

It's actually true, as the memo states, that there is "no better time" than the current Wall Street panic to hand-distribute copies of the Journal throughout London, thus advancing editor Robert Thomson's internationalist ambitions. But perhaps this observation could have been kept close to the vest.

The memo:

DOW JONES NEWS
Read all about it
Market Turmoil Provides Hook to Sell U.S. Journal in London
September 17, 2008

The turmoil in the world's financial markets has provided strong copy and headlines for The Wall Street Journal.

So there was no better time to distribute copies of the U.S. edition - with its well-sourced, insightful and visually compelling coverage of the collapse of Lehman Brothers, Bank of America's acquisition of Merrill Lynch and AIG's scramble for cash – at key transit points in the City of London today.

A big thanks to volunteers Adam Ezro, Nilam Vekaria, Peter Jennings, Suhki Bhuta, Arash Hamrahian, Danni Smith and Etienne Bauvir who joined Anne Hogarth and me during the City rush hour yesterday morning to distribute nearly 1,500 copies of the paper, complete with retail vouchers and subscription offers.

Thanks also to Anne, Mike Elsas and Cedric Hamerlinck for the faultless organisation and execution at such short notice. Undoubtedly, the exercise has raised further awareness of the WSJ at a time when our coverage is in a class of its own.

Tim Lafferty
Director of product sales and marketing
Dow Jones Consumer Media Group EMEA

Our tipster's reaction:

I thought this piece of company news pasted below was especially crappy, given the gravity of the economy's teeter-totter and the fact that lives depend on the outcomes. Apparently the paper's reinvention involves cackling over the snapping bones and spirits of the very Wall Streeters who've given us our stories. Yayy capitalism journalismism.

Outside Lehman's headquarters in midtown Manhattan, employees taking lunch breaks or a few minutes for a smoke early on Thursday afternoon discussed the firm's future. Many sounded dazed. "It's over, man...unless we get bought out in the next 24 hours, it's over," said a young man, in conversation with someone on his cellphone. He said he was a Lehman employee and declined to answer further questions.

At a fast-food vendor across the street, people waiting to order food discussed the dive in Lehman's share price this week, and the latest headlines from CNBC. Outside, a group of three men, wearing Lehman badges and walking back into headquarters, discussed the fallout for other firms on Wall Street. "At some point, where does it stop?" one said, as he headed back to the office.

Intelligencer worries, in the tradition of journalism ethicists, that the workers might have been talking about something else (Project Runway?). The bigger issue, though, is that the quotes kind of suck. They convey that the workers are dazed and panicked, but any information beyond that is suspect, in particular the "it's over" line from the random Lehman employee on a random phone call. And why use it (as we would!) if you have better-sourced information elsewhere in the story (as the WSJ does)?

Surely the WSJ hasn't lost its grip on insiders at firms like Lehman who could provide a real sense of what's going on. But gimmicky reporting could soon convince people otherwise!

[WSJ via Intelligencer]

Oooooh, how snug indeed, that synergistic Commieloving capitalist News Corp embrace! Nah, for real though: Thomson has a right to be legitimately stoked that his newspaper is just now getting into the "read it at home and peruse it in your leisure hours" business because unlike his pals over at the Times he doesn't have to now endure the wrenching financial fallout of non fetish-inclined old people finally discovering Craigslist. But next time you give a press conference, bro, maybe remember that you're talking to the press, as in the "broke-ass former journalists who have to blog this now because yes, that is what it's come to for most of us" and that a lot of them are past the point of "schatenfraude."

*Ha ha ha, you like how we juxtaposed those two sentences? Anyway, "eschatalogical" may be a little internerdy at this point, but it's still a twelve-Euro word in my book, Bob! (Side note: love what you've done with the bloggy digressions over there, Bercovici!)

Presumably eager to reach what WSJ.'s publisher has described as the "top top consumer," the magazine's editors planned a debut splash: Kate Moss on the cover in an exclusive article about her supposed emergence as a business juggernaut. The entire staff knew of the plan and spoke freely about it, we are told, which may be how Anna Wintour stole the story out from under the nascent publication. August's Vogue, you may have heard, features Kate Moss on the cover beside the headline, "How the Supermodel Rose from Bad Girl to Business Tycoon." Whoops.

That sad incident hardly alleviated staff skepticism toward another major piece, a profile of PETA's Ingrid Newkirk. Set aside the question of what's left to say about Newkirk. Then set aside that the assigned freelancer turned in copy deemed disastrous and unsalvageable. There's still this: The story in the newsroom is that the freelancer has convinced Newkirk not to cooperate with the assigned staff writer. Ugh.

Journal managing editor Thomson is surely familiar with the Financial Times' successful How To Spend it section — he was a longtime veteran of the British newspaper, and in fact is remaking the Journal in FT's image across the board. But it takes some hubris to try and recreate How To Spend It via WSJ., a project Thomson has not only kept alive but put his own stamp on. There are only so many ultra-wealthy readers to go around, and one wonders how many are still not locked up by either T, the U.S. edition of How To Spend It or the many niche magazines detailed in the Observer story.

It will be an especially tricky challenge if Thomson continues to insist on quintessentially British coverage. It does not escape WSJ. staffers that the PETA story reflects a very British fascination with animal rights — a topic of interest to wealthy Americans, sure, but not to the same extent as on the other side of the Atlantic. One is reminded of the front-page story on Ireland's European Union vote a few weekends ago.

If it doesn't sound too Yank to their Commonwealth ears, perhaps Murdoch and Thomson might consider the bold step of re-re-forming WSJ. as something experimental, unproven and at least nominally unique, rather than as a pastiche of T, the FT and whatever other proven examples they've reflexively reached for.

Or, failing that, at least come up with a truly "exclusive" cover!

Five ex-WSJers have ended up at Portfolio, and three at the NYT; the rest are scattered amongst other financial news outlets (Forbes, Fortune, BusinessWeek, the FT, etc.) and the higher-paying fields of PR and finance.

Here's the problem: not a single one of those outlets that is scooping up the Journal's castoffs is doing better than the Journal itself. The paper is the only one in America actually investing in financial news; elsewhere, it's simply a shrinking field. The big three financial magazines are all in more or less perilous positions. The Economist's upper ranks are a good gig, but only for a chosen few. Of the prospective upstarts in the field, Portfolio has thus far proven itself to be only a black hole for Conde Nast's money, and Slate's proposed new business title will employ only a relative handful of journalists (and is no sure success itself). FiLife.com, IAC's new money matters site, has morphed into a user-friendly community site based on personal finance that no skilled business journalist would have any use for.

Newspapers? Even worse. The Times can't afford to pick up all the business reporters qualified to work there. Nor can the FT, even if it wanted to. Reuters and Bloomberg are viable employers (for now), but neither offers the type of prestige the WSJ does for an ambitious reporter.

The point: The number of decent US jobs in business journalism is shrinking. Those who leave the WSJ face the very real prospect of not finding anything nearly as good as the position they left. And the problem will only get worse for the foreseeable future. So those who bailed out for PR and Wall Street will end up with a lot of old WSJ colleagues sending resumes their way.

Dear All,

Laurie Hays, Deputy Managing Editor, has decided to leave the Journal after almost 23 years to pursue another career opportunity. Laurie has made a remarkable contribution to the paper, driving award-winning stories and setting the news agenda. We appreciate her outstanding contributions to the Journal and wish her every success in the interesting challenges that surely await,

Robert.

Dear All,

I am pleased to announce significant changes to the editorial leadership of The Wall Street Journal, changes which will expedite decision-making and give increased authority and responsibility to reporters and bureau chiefs. These changes will take place in tandem with the creation of a central news desk that will allow significantly enhanced co-operation between print, web and Newswires journalists, in New York and around the world.

At the heart of our new structure will be a National, International and Enterprise Team, a triumvirate which will report directly to me and to whom the bureau chiefs will report. Effective July 7, Matt Murray will become National Editor, overseeing American general and corporate news, and Nikhil Deogun will become International Editor and directly oversee our global network of bureaus and correspondents. Mike Williams will preside over a broadened Page One, being responsible for investigative reporting, as well A-heds and leders. The troika, who will become Deputy Managing Editors, will sit close together in what could prosaically be called a 'news hub', thus streamlining commissioning and editing decisions, and giving them a central role in the production and presentation of copy for the paper and the website.

Mike Miller, who continues to oversee the Journal's features sections, is to be Senior Deputy Managing Editor and will be responsible for editing the paper if I am otherwise engaged. Cathy Panagoulias becomes a Deputy Managing Editor and will take a greater role in providing administrative support for bureau chiefs and in hiring decisions. Jim Pensiero is to be Deputy Managing Editor for operations, and is masterminding our move to Midtown and the introduction of a new publishing system. Alix Freedman will have expanded authority as a defender of the paper's ethical and journalistic standards. Alan Murray will remain as Executive Editor of the Journal Online, which will have a more influential role at the heart of the reformed news structure, and becomes a Deputy Managing Editor.

Deputy Managing Editor Dan Hertzberg will take responsibility for the European and Asian editions, and will have the task of building our editorial presence and profile in Europe and, in particular, in the U.K. Reg Chua becomes Senior Assistant Managing Editor, and will oversee the Design Team ? a new Director of Design will be appointed in coming days - and the development of data resources.

Most news organizations in the U.S. and around the world are in retreat, but Dow Jones is expanding its reporting resources, rapidly developing its digital content and providing journalism of the highest integrity to an ever larger audience in The Wall Street Journal.

Yours,

Robert.

[pic via NYO]

The 47-year-old Australian journalist—30 years younger than Murdoch to the day and a close confidante of the media mogul—will now have untrammeled power to turn the Journal into a national newspaper-of-record or fail in the attempt.

There's only one wrinkle: the editor of the Journal's embarrassingly ideological opinion pages, Paul Gigot, will not report to Thomson. That may be to prevent Murdoch from influencing the political line of the newspaper, a bizarre concession to allow the special committee to save face. The irony is that editorial pages are quite conservative enough without any assistance from Murdoch.

1. He's cheap. A reporting trip to Cincinnati early in his career was extended beyond the day-trip he'd packed for. Rather than buying an extra pack of underwear, Bussey reputedly wore reused the same socks and shorts the whole week, washing the items and leaving them up to dry overnight. Innocent enough, but this story isn't: when bureau chief in Tokyo, where he became friends with Robert Thomson, one of Bussey's reporters lost his father. Rather than pay for a ticket back to the US at such short notice, Bussey wanted the reporter to wait a week until flights were cheaper, legend has it.

2. He's cold. Bussey's a cropped-haired ascetic these days, totally consumed by his career. But he did once dip into the Journal's typically isolated dating pool. (The newspaper was run for many years like the Philippines under Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos—by Dow Jones CEO Peter Kann and his wife, Wall Street Journal publisher Karen Elliot House.) Before Wendy Steiger (pictured showing off her bosom in this blog photo) married managing editor Paul Steiger, she was Bussey's girlfriend. He famously broke up with her while in the shower. It's not clear who dumped whom, but Bussey's dry wit overcame any heartbreak. When Wendy moved on to his boss, Bussey remarked: "smart career move."

3. He sent reporter Danny Pearl to his death at the hands of Islamic extremists in Pakistan in 2002. This charge is particularly unfair—and based entirely on the understandably bitter account of Pearl's wife, Mariane. In the movie of her book, A Mighty Heart, Bussey is portrayed as an ineffectual manager who ignored warnings of the dangers to journalists in war zones and responded to the first report of Danny Pearl's disappearance with seeming indifference. "What do you think we should do?" his character asks Angelina Jolie's Mariane Pearl in the movie. A Mighty Heart does acknowledge that Bussey flew to Karachi to help with the hopeless rescue effort; it doesn't portray the breakdown he suffered after video of Pearl's brutal execution surfaced, after which the Journal put him out to pasture in Hong Kong. The positive spin: Bussey has been mellowed by the trauma of Pearl's death and a later demotion when rival Marcus Brauchli took over the Journal. He's no longer so obnoxiously driven; just driven.

4. But he's still a fusspot. Bussey's DC detractors say he never discusses stories and the biggest political scoop of his tenure—news of Mark Penn's demotion by Hillary Clinton—was pushed by Jerry Seib, his predecessor. That's debatable: journalists always complain that their precious stories don't get the play and attention they deserve. But the bureau chief's fusspottery—he's particularly preoccupied by sandwich counts at lunches for visiting bigwigs—makes it easy to mock his priorities. Writes a tipster: "Bussey's main initiative since Marcus installed him as Washington buro chief a few months ago has been his crusade to clean up the office. Seriously. He's obsessed with throwing out books and papers. He has this big blue bin on roller wheels that he puts next to offending reporters' desks and hectors them to throw everything away."

Robert Thomson, former editor of Murdoch's London Times, is a charmer, as we've written. (Disclosure, I used to work for him at the Financial Times.) A former colleague reported that the Times newsroom was "the happiest place to work on Fleet Street." But his emollient side was not so obviously on display at Monday's meeting: according to two attendees, Thomson berated the assembled reporters for their lack of aggression in reporting news and their arrogance. The Journal, he said, took this attitude: "If we haven't written about it, it's not news."

Now that is apparently a general complaint of Murdoch and his henchmen, who want the Journal to compete more fiercely for both political and business scoops—and the criticism not entirely unwarranted. Thomson, Australian and 30 years to the day Murdoch's junior, is the product of the more robust newsroom cultures of Sydney and London; Journal reporters are unaccustomed to such frank talk from their bosses. And all that Thomson meant to say—we understand—was that the Journal was now in an ultra-competitive world in which it had to be conscious of the challengers, old and new. Uncontroversial enough.

But his sensitive audience took his remarks the wrong way. The newspaper had just that morning published an exclusive on the gigantic $23bn bid by Mars and Warren Buffett for Wrigley, the chewing gum makers. According to one attendee, stock market reporter Jim Browning said he was "personally offended" by the suggestion that the newspaper's reporters didn't try to break news. Thomson's joke—that former managing editor Paul Steiger was extremely competitive on the softball field—failed to defuse the tension.

The Journal is still reeling after News Corporation executives pushed out Marcus Brauchli in order to install a more amenable managing editor at the paper. It has only been a week. Until the new hierarchy is clear, the staff will naturally be jumpy and quick to take offense. Murdoch's newspaper acquisition drive still makes as much sense as we thought a week ago. However, if News Corporation can't even win over the potential collaborators, the occupation of the Journal will be all the more bitter. The infighting is already pretty ugly.

• Nik Deogun, the head of Money & Investing and widely seen as a potential quisling, is now telling colleagues he's not in line for the managing editor job. Some of his more fevered internal critics thought they detected glee on the day Marcus Brauchli's departure became public.
• Paul Steiger and Marcus Brauchli, the last two managing editors of the independent Journal, have taken the brunt of newsroom anger. "Steiger who is being villified for advocating the sale to Murdoch when he had so much to gain from it. This guy was beloved and now is being talked about like a greedy bastard who is no different than the Wall Street guys brought down on his watch. People are talking about how he who sold out so he could afford his young 30-something wife." (Here's her bosom-revealing blog.)
• Kathryn Kranhold, the Journal's much-respected reporter on GE, has quit with no new job in the offing. "It's a huge loss," says a colleague.
• Bill Grueskin, deputy managing editor, has commissioned an investigative piece on the eviction of Marcus Brauchli—and the special committee that was supposed to protect the Journal's editorial independence from Murdoch. (In charge is Steve Stecklow, one of the paper's most rabid investigative reporters.) But ungenerous colleagues suspect his position is vulnerable, and Grueskin is merely casting himself as a defender of the Journal's integrity, and a martyr.
• John Bussey, the DC bureau chief, is touted by allies as a candidate for the top editorial job. But he must be one of the most widely disliked executives at the paper: since we mentioned his name, the hostile tips have outnumbered the plaudits by about 2 to 1. More on Bussey later.
• Alix Freedman, supposed guardian of the Journal's ethics, was forced to explain to a group of new employees why she had killed the newspaper's exclusive on the ouster of Brauchli. At the orientation, she explained that the paper didn't like to air its "dirty laundry". Um, isn't that what newspapers are supposed to do?

Now, we don't actually believe that Sorkin's a serious candidate for the managing editor role. At 31, Sorkin is less than half the age that Steiger was when he retired from the position last year; Brauchli himself was deemed young for the job when he took over from Steiger at the age of 46. And Sorkin, though credited for the success of the Times' Deal Book finance email newsletter, has little experience as a manager. Steiger may have been misheard; or simply caught up in the swirl of ill-informed gossip that has gripped the Journal since Brauchli's defenestration.

But Robert Thomson, the former editor of Murdoch's London Times before the Australian media mogul dropped him in as publisher of the Journal, has indeed reached out to Sorkin, for some undefined role. (Thomson is pictured here, above Sorkin.)

Here's why Sorkin is actually more plausible a candidate than he looks. First, in the highly competitive UK, where Thomson has spent most of his newspaper career, editors tend to assume responsibility much earlier in their careers. Thomson's successor at the London Times, James Harding, was just 38 years old. Piers Morgan, now reduced to American trash television, was just 28 when made editor of Murdoch's News of the World.

Second, Sorkin has a powerful reputation for breaking business scoops. With excellent contacts among the acquisition advisers who dole out deal stories, Sorkin has pretty much singlehandedly made the New York Times a force on the crucial M&A beat. The Journal no longer has the monopoly it once possessed over day-before news of big deals. One measure of Sorkin's value as a scoop-getter: he's among the most highly paid reporters at the Times, earning about $200,000 per annum.

Finally, the Times reporter, having spent so much time in the company of bankers and executives, has much more understanding of business dictates managers than his peers. Sorkin was one of the reporters most supportive of Murdoch's bold bid for Dow Jones, the Journal's parent company. While Sorkin's articles in the Times rehearsed the traditional criticisms of the tycoon's record as a proprietor, he concluded: "Mr. Murdoch may be the perfect publisher of The Wall Street Journal." Murdoch may well return the sentiment.

We've argued before that the Journal, like many other sclerotic American newspaper organizations, might benefit from a generational change. But it is not as if the newspaper has nurtured that many young editors. If Robert Thomson is determined to raise the metabolism of the Journal, to use Howell Raines' expression, he may be forced to bring in talent from outside. And that will be even more depressing for career Journal editors than last week's putsch. It is galling to report to someone younger; or to an outsider; a manager who has both those characteristics would be positively unbearable.

...he is loyal, almost to a fault. One reporter said he “can’t say no.” And many former colleagues say he is not the type of manager who is capable of easily firing workers.

In fact, the prevailing theory as to why he never became the editor of The Financial Times is because the paper needed to trim its ranks after a hiring boom during the dot-com days, and Mr. Thomson was not seen as the right person to do that.

And already at the Journal, the Times reports, Thomson has announced an investment of $6 million per year for four additional pages of international news.

[Times]

Robert Thomson, the former editor of News Corporation's Times of London, was brought in by Rupert Murdoch as publisher of the Wall Street Journal. His original job description allowed him oversight of editorial matters not customary for a publisher; he's interim managing editor until a permanent successor is chosen and already, this morning, addressed the Journal's editors. News Corporation's plans to turn the business newspaper into a national conservative daily are basically Thomson's; with Brauchli gone, he's free to impose his will. WINNER

Nikhil Deogun. Historians of Nazi occupations were always surprised how quickly parts of the political establishment accomodated themselves to the new masters. The term quisling derives from the puppet leader who did the bidding of Norway's Nazi occupiers. If there is to be a quisling at the Journal it will be Nikhil Deogun. (Okay, mean: let's just say he's the equivalent of Charles Douglas Home, who ratted out Tina Brown's husband, Harry Evans, to become editor of Murdoch's Times of London, in 1982.) Calcutta-bred Deogun, a deputy managing editor, heads up Money & Investing, the section of the newspaper least in need of an overhaul. He's covered politics from Washington, DC, a key area for the new Journal; friendly with Gary Ginsberg, one of Murdoch's key lieutenants and a contact of Deogun's from his days as a media reporter; and political to the point of Machiavellian. "He's ambitious enough to do what Murdoch wants," says one close watcher of the Journal. WINNER

The other four deputy managing editors are all vulnerable. News Corporation executives have already indicated his belief that the organization is top-heavy. Ethics editor Alix Freedman, for example, is charged with spurring the Journal’s efforts to maintain and extend the paper’s unparalleled reputation for accuracy and fairness. She's pictured here winning 2003's silver medal from the United Nations Correspondents Association. Could any resume be more designed to wind up News Corporation's gruff management? LOSERS

John Bussey, bureau chief in Washington, DC, must go if Robert Thomson is to make the Journal an instrument of political influence. Much of the DC coverage under Bussey and his predecessors has revolved around dry regulatory and legislative matters of significance to business. Expect more purely political news, and someone else in charge of the bureau to deliver it. Bussey's departure will be traumatic: he was a central figure in the efforts to save Danny Pearl, the Journal reporter whose throat was cut by Islamic radicals; they are both part of the Journal's modern myth. LOSER Correction: several credible people have emailed in to say I got this one pretty much completely wrong. Bussey's too recently in the DC bureau to bear responsibility for its dry output, and colleagues say he's shaken up the shop in the six months he's been in charge. Notable successes: Mark Penn's ouster, and the coverage of the HUD scandal. In fact, the Observer has even mentioned Bussey as a possible candidate for the Managing Editor role. Bussey might be tapped if Deogun is seen as too crucial to Money & Investing to take away from that section.

Marcus Brauchli gave his whole career to the Journal, and it must be devastating to be forced out just eleven months after winning the great prize, the role of managing editor. But the severance terms, rumored to be $3m, will salve the hurt. Brauchli is young and well-regarded enough to move on to a second career. (He'd be an excellent hire for anyone setting up an online business news operation.) And, by leaving the Journal, he won't have to impose the will of Murdoch on colleagues, and contend with their inevitable hostility. TOSS-UP

The larvae. Let the Columbia Journalism Review and other tenured hand-wringers bemoan the decimation about to be visited on the editorial ranks at the Wall Street Journal. In any war, a high casualty rate among officers means battlefield promotions for the ranks; some turnover is what the gerontocracies of the American newspaper industry most need. Which was proved by a question I've been asking—who are the young killer reporters at the Journal who'll most benefit from movement at the top?—and this depressing answer from an insider. "It's really hard to say. There are so many layers of editors, that it's almost impossible (and politically frowned upon) for young ones to shine in a noticeable way. Once the ranks are thinned, that will change." WINNERS

Indeed, Thomson "has come to be seen in the [WSJ] newsroom as a supereditor, looking over Mr. Brauchli’s shoulder," according to the Times. Despite his publisher title, Thomson's newsroom role is extensive enough that he is poised to run the paper as interim managing editor while a formal seach is conducted, according to a report in the Journal.

When Thomson was the North America editor at the Financial Times, "he was a bit of a social hit," despite a hunched appearance due to a bad back, another former colleague said. "Thomson is very charming."

Thomson's charm was also mentioned in a December profile in the Canberra Times, along with the editor's friendship with Murdoch:

He's kind and thoughtful, keeps in touch with old friends (even those who aren't heavy hitters) and dutifully visits his mum in Melbourne's St Kilda once a year, with wife and kids in tow.

But there are other holidays too. Thomson and his wife, Wang Ping, and their two small sons, Jack and Luke, have holidayed with Murdoch and Wendi Deng and their small two daughters, Grace and Chloe, at the Murdoch ranch in California. Murdoch likes Thomson's lack of conventionality; and the Australian connection cements the closeness. Observers say the pair, born 30 years apart on the same day in March, are closer than a regular tough employer/successful employee relationship.

Not that Thomson is all gladhanding. At the Financial Times, he was famous for being able to pull together big global reports, like the story of the Sumitomo Corp. employee who lost billions of dollars in the copper market, and get credit for doing so.

Said the Canberra Times profile: "One reporter who worked closely with him said that for all his respect for the past, he had a sense of the mischievous and the ticklish and was brilliant in his handling of all aspects of news, from the banality of real estate through to the complexity of reporting China."

There is, of course, a small pool of other possibilities for the Journal job, like WSJ vet Larry Ingrassia at the Times or Chrystia Freeland at the U.S. edition of FT. Perhaps Journal alum Stephen Adler at Business Week, maybe even, as a longshot bet, Times columnist Joe Nocera. Or Murdoch could really stir things up with his staff and reach out to a non-financial editor, advancing his plan to inject more political and international coverage into the front of the paper.

But why bother? Thomson, unlike any other candidate, can actually think like Murdoch, and has already earned his trust, even his affection. These are key advantages at a time when the News Corp. chairman is clearly in no mood to slow or compromise his vision for the Journal. Assuming Murdoch can push his changes through the special committee overseeing the newspaper's editorial side — a significant consideration — Thomson is the only real choice.

Brauchli was one of the few Journal managers who tacitly supported the takeover of the Journal by Murdoch's News Corporation, hoping the removal of the Bancroft family and a deep-pocketed backer would free a newspaper which had become hidebound. And Murdoch aides showed no signs of wanting him out; the Journal's new publisher, Robert Thomson, was a friend of Brauchli when both were foreign correspondents in the Far East.

But the Australian media mogul, and his lieutenants, have shown growing impatience with the Journal's resistance to their plans. Murdoch plans to turn the Journal into a full-fledged competitor to the New York Times. even if that means sacrificing the Journal's grip on business readers, or its prized reputation for elegant long-form writing. Brauchli is the first high-profile casualty of this clash.

Robert Thomson (the publisher brought in from the UK by the newspaper's new owner, Rupert Murdoch) has flown in the paper's senior editors from its American and international bureaus to break some bad news. Saturday's weekend edition will get an additional two pages, for features, we're told. The implication: on busy news days, at the very least, the Journal will no longer run A-Hed features.

This isn't wholly surprising. The News Corporation boss has already indicated he wants to take on the New York Times in national news. And some sharp-eyed observers such as Ben Compaine had noted how heavily the Journal covered the news surrounding assassination of Benazir Bhutto, a story it might have left to other less detached newspapers in the past. "What was always compelling about the Journal was Page 1, with stories you would find nowhere else," said Compaine.

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The Financial Times Takes On the World [BW]

Harding to take Times top job [Guardian]