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Washington Post’s Top Editor Stepping Down; Boston Globe Editor To Become Executive Editor

David Taintor November 13, 2012, 12:59 PM

Marcus Brauchli is stepping down as the Washington Post’s executive editor and will be replaced by Boston Globe editor Martin Baron, publisher Katharine Weymouth announced Tuesday.

Brauchli will officially relinquish the post at the end of the year and become a vice president of the Washington Post Company. Baron will assume the paper’s top editorial job on Jan. 2, 2013.

Baron

“We are thrilled to have Marty Baron lead The Washington Post’s newsroom,” Weymouth said in a statement. “He has a demonstrated record of producing the highest quality journalism, which matches the legacy and expectations of The Post.”

Brauchli, who joined the paper from the Wall Street Journal in 2008, had confided in some people that he expected to be out of the editor’s seat by the end of the year, HuffPost’s Michael Calderone reported on Friday.

Brauchli’s relationship with Weymouth chilled as she pushed for deeper newsroom cuts, the New York Times reports. Weymouth reportedly told news industry colleagues that she wanted Brauchli out, and recently rejected a newsroom budget that he proposed even though it included cuts she had requested.

Advertising revenue and circulation continues to fall at the Post. According to a company release, revenue from the newspaper publishing division totaled $137.3 million in the third quarter of 2012, down 4 percent from 2011’s third quarter. Daily and Sunday circulation declined 9.2 percent and 6.5 percent, respectively, in the third quarter, compared to the previous year’s third quarter.

Brauchli

Still, Brauchli on Tuesday commended the staff’s flexibility amidst changes in the newsroom. “We have reorganized, melded and streamlined our news operations, and emerged stronger than we started. That is not, as cynics would have it, simply a function of fewer people doing more, but of awareness that we are responsible for our destiny as never before,” Brauchli wrote in a memo to staff, obtained by Jim Romenesko.

David Taintor

David Taintor is TPM’s News Editor. He contributes to TPM’s Livewire coverage, among other areas. David is from Chanhassen, Minnesota, where, yes, it gets very cold. Reach him at taintor [at] talkingpointsmemo.com