Top Editor of Wall Street Journal Resigns

Marcus W. Brauchli stepped down Tuesday as the top-ranking editor of The Wall Street Journal after less than a year in the job, the newspaper announced Tuesday. His resignation comes four months after the News Corporation, led by Rupert Murdoch, took control of the paper.

The publisher appointed by Mr. Murdoch, Robert J. Thomson — who was most recently the top editor of The Times of London, another News Corporation property — is expected serve as an interim successor.

“Following the change in ownership of Dow Jones and The Journal, I have concluded the time is right to consider new career possibilities,” Mr. Brauchli said Tuesday in a statement.

Since December, when News Corporation bought Dow Jones & Company, publisher of The Journal, he has immersed himself in the newspaper’s daily operations and quickly made changes in its shape and style. Friends and colleagues say that Mr. Brauchli has been frustrated with some changes, and with the sense that he did not have the control over the newspaper that he was promised.

Mr. Murdoch has said publicly that he wants to make The Journal more of a general-interest newspaper, to compete more directly with The New York Times, though he insists he will not diminish its coverage of business.