Well, that did not take long. The resignation of Marcus Brauchli as managing editor of the Wall Street Journal just 11 months after taking up the post and four months after Rupert Murdoch’s acquisition of Dow Jones occurred faster than almost anyone expected.

Despite Mr Murdoch’s pledge not to interfere in editorial matters, and the creation of a special committee to ensure that Mr Brauchli was not told what to do by the paper’s new owner, it never seemed entirely plausible that Mr Murdoch would remain editorially detached.

His influence - transmuted through Robert Thomson, the former US managing editor of the FT who is now publisher of the Journal - is evident in the paper’s extra political coverage and the expansion of its opinion pages.

My sense is that Journal staff are uncomfortable about Mr Murdoch’s enthusiasm for taking on the New York Times by broadening the political coverage. Even if it does the job well, it will inevitably lose some focus.

One question is how much of a fuss the committee will kick up over Mr Brauchli’s rapid departure. Since he has resigned, the committee has no obvious grounds to interfere but its members are likely to feel uncomfortable if they do not at least make a statement.

They will not want to meet the fate of the independent directors of the Times of London, who did not protest when Harry Evans resigned as editor in 1982 after falling out with Mr Murdoch. They are still there but have not been taken very seriously since then.

It promises to be quite a drama in the world of US newspapers and of financial publications, including this one.

April 22, 2008 4:57am in Media | Comment