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Over a week after the first Bancroft family member called out Rupert Murdoch for violating the terms of his Dow Jones purchase agreement, the editorial oversight board has said that the media baron “failed to meet the letter and the spirit of the agreement.” By pushing out managing editor Marcus Brauchli without asking the oversight board’s permission (or even notifying them in advance), Murdoch rendered them completely powerless. The board was set up at the request of the Bancroft family when they sold the paper to Murdoch’s News Corp. as an effort to protect the paper’s editorial integrity. “It was not our view that I had to report to the committee my voluntary resignation under the terms of the editorial agreement,” Brauchli told his former paper today. “I regret that they first learned of my resignation late in the process.” The committee is sort of at a loss, they said in a statement, because there is “no practical way to ‘unresign’ Brauchli and start the process over.” So they’re trying to remain content by exercising “fully its role in the approval of a successor managing editor.” Of course, Robert Thomson is already firmly installed as “head of content.” Looks like the editorial oversight committee was, in fact, blindsided.
Dow Jones Committee Criticizes Handling of Brauchli Resignation [WSJ]
Earlier: ‘Journal’ Managing Editor Out, Murdoch In?
A Bancroft Calls Out Rupert Murdoch for Going Against His Word
