Mr. Murdoch Comes To Washington

What’s Rupert Murdoch’s effect on the WSJ’s DC Bureau going to be? Michael Calderone explains.

But it’s in The Journal’s Washington operation where Mr. Murdoch’s presence, perhaps indirectly, appears to be having its most significant effect. Last May, he told The Times that he intended to increase political coverage and “might put more emphasis on Washington.” Mr. Brauchli–still only four months into his tenure–appears to have beaten him to the punch, on Sept. 19 naming John Bussey, known as a talented, aggressive editor, as the new bureau chief. In addition, Boston bureau chief Gary Putka, who’d been rumored to be a candidate for the Washington bureau chief job, and is also known as a tenacious competitor, will soon be overseeing some coverage of homeland security and national affairs remotely, but in coordination with Boston and D.C. bureau reporters, according to a staffer. “Marcus might want to make big changes sooner rather than later,” said one D.C. bureau staffer, since it’s clear that moves will have to be made anyway. By doing so, he “puts his own stamp on it.”

“I think this is all a sign of coming expansion in Washington,” said Gerald Seib, who’s leaving the bureau chief job for two new roles, assistant managing editor and executive Washington editor. Mr. Seib said that the bureau plans to increase Web coverage, and expects political reporters to eventually appear on the Fox Business Network.

Several staffers told The Observer that while they expected some shake-up in the bureau, the selection of Mr. Bussey, who’ll take up his new post on Nov. 1, caught them off guard. For one thing, Mr. Bussey has spent much of his Journal career reporting and editing on international issues–the recent Daniel Pearl biopic, A Mighty Heart, shows him in his role as foreign editor. Then there’s a widely circulated memo from June, in which Mr. Brauchli wrote that Mr. Bussey would leave his editor position in Asia to “take on a significant new writing assignment”–which never happened. And lastly, multiple staffers said the two men simply do not get along; perhaps, one staffer speculated, it dates back to the time that Mr. Bussey oversaw Mr. Brauchli as a foreign correspondent. (Both Mr. Brauchli and Mr. Bussey declined to comment.)

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