Enough trial balloons were floated for this not to be a surprise and yet the reality still has some bite: Marcus Brauchli, who left his post at managing editor of the Wall Street Journal after less than a year, will be the next top editor of the Washington Post—following Leonard Downie, Jr., who announced his resignation late last month. Official word of Brauchli’s appointment came just a few minutes ago, hours after the NYT reported that it was coming. The actual handover is Sept. 8. Jim Brady, executive editor of washingtonpost.com, and Phil Bennett, managing editor of the newspaper and the top internal candidate for the job, will report to Brauchli, who is expected to move closer towards integrating the two operations.

WaPo’s publisher Katharine Weymouth’s Pottery Barn now. Her uncle, Washington Post Company (NYSE: WPO) chairman and CEO Donald Graham, selected Downie. Her grandmother Katharine Graham chose Ben Bradlee. Available because Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp (NYSE: NWS) acquired Dow Jones and Murdoch wanted his own edit team in place, Brauchli will have to switch gears considerably to lead a very different news organization into nextgen journalism. From Weymouth’s statement: “Marcus has the ability to think strategically about our newsroom, about how to realign our resources in a way that is consistent with what readers want and expect and maintain The Post’s first-rate journalism.”

Photo credit: Katherine Frey, The Washington Post Photo

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