Ecos de la dimisión de Brauchli

Les ofrezco un rápido resumen de los ecos de la dimisión de Marcus Brauchli, director del Wall Street Journal:

Gawker: "Murdoch already tried and failed once to placate the institutional culture at the Journal, and this time around he's going to want someone who fully supports his plans and can execute them quickly".

CJR: "The Journal fronts a poor and (thankfully for the author) unbylined story on its Marketplace section that doesn’t tell us anything about why Brauchli might have resigned—though it says the decision was “amicable”—and is careful not to offend Murdoch by raising the integrity questions that dogged him during the months-long takeover fight".

Michael Calderone: "A Journal veteran, Brauchli's been regarded as a newsroom favorite, and seen by many as a buffer between the editorial staff and Murdoch. But now that's no longer the case. "This is a clear sign that it’s over--the Dow Jones culture is dead," said one Journal staffer."

FT: "Mr Brauchli’s departure is another sign of Mr Murdoch’s ongoing campaign to shake-up one of the world’s most respected financial newspapers."

NY Times: "Journal newsroom employees say that Mr. Murdoch and the publisher he installed, Robert J. Thomson, have made it clear that they think the paper has too many editors, and have instructed Mr. Brauchli to thin the ranks, potentially making room in the headcount for more reporters. Two people briefed on Mr. Brauchli’s thinking said that had become a major point of contention."

Content Bridges: "Please, Murdoch owns the paper. He'll do with it what he pleases. Produce some great journalism, sure. Use it as weapon to bludgeon the Times, sure. Make resource decisions that determine the journalism and the fates of his friends, sure. That's the way it is. The question will be how much of 21st century robber baron journalism comes to pervade the industry".

Dean Starkman : "Brauchli’s resignation is a billboard-sized sign that the world’s leading financial publication is abandoning the qualities that made it great in the first place". "With Brauchli gone, the Journal newsroom loses not just a topflight editor and bureau chief, a great Asia hand, and someone who was a real, live reporter, one who displayed sophistication (1), prescience (2) and conscience (3). It also loses a surprisingly savvy internal diplomat who, I thought, might just have been adroit enough to manage the inevitable tensions that would arise from the takeover, at least enough to preserve some of the Journal’s great journalistic heritage".

WSJ: "Some Journal staffers first began wondering about Mr. Brauchli's standing with Messrs. Murdoch and Thomson back in December. That's when the two News Corp. executives visited the newsroom to mark the closing of the acquisition. Mr. Brauchli stood by in silence as both Mr. Murdoch and Mr. Thomson, standing on boxes of printer paper, introduced themselves and their team, without making any reference to Mr. Brauchli".

Portfolio: "I'm not surprised," says Jane Cox MacElree, who controlled 15 percent of the family's Dow Jones shares. "This is why I was not in favor of selling the paper to that man. Words mean nothing to him, unless they're his." That's a reference to the editorial independence agreement between Dow Jones and News Corp., which is supposed to prevent the latter from replacing key executives at the former without the consent of an independent committee."

Forbes.com: “It’s a strategy that has made it the second-largest daily paper in the U.S., with average daily circulation of 2.01 million during the six months ended Sept. 30, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations. That was nearly twice as large as the Times, which had average daily circulation of 1.04 million during the same period. “Expanding that lead by reaching out to a more mainstream readership could pay rich dividends. But as the Journal branches out into more political and general-news reporting, it must do so without short-shrifting its core franchise — top-flight coverage of business news. Taking its eye off the latter could alienate its traditional readership base, which has more options than ever for business and financial news.”

Jeff Bercovici: "The assumption here is that he was forced out," says one editor. "It was clear that Murdoch wanted to have his own people in place, and it was clear that Marcus was feeling increasingly marginalized."