As was widely rumored, former Wall Street Journal managing editor Marcus Brauchli was named executive editor of the Washington Post last night. He will succeed Len Downie, who held the post for seventeen years. From the Post:

When the handoff occurs Sept. 8, Brauchli will become only the third person in the paper's top post since Ben Bradlee was given the job in 1968 and the first from outside the corporation since shortly after Weymouth's great-grandfather, Eugene Meyer, bought the paper in a bankruptcy sale in 1933.

"It's going to be a challenge, obviously, to adjust to a new culture," Brauchli said. "I'm anticipating having to go through a steep learning curve at hyperspeed."

Brauchli was ousted from the Journal in April, after it was purchased by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. His term at the paper included a lot of international experience, having worked from Hong Kong, Stockholm, Tokyo, and Shanghai. Media hounds will be watching the Post in the coming months to see whether he'll shift the focus of the paper, which is largely local and political, to a broader scope. He'll also be charged with combining the newsrooms of the print and online versions of the Post — a task he accomplished at the Journal with positive results.

Washington Post Names Marcus Brauchli Executive Editor [WP]