Marcus Brauchli

Marcus W. Brauchli (born June 19, 1961) is vice president of The Washington Post Co., working for the company's chairman and CEO, Donald Graham. Before that, he spent four-plus years as executive editor, overseeing the Post's print and digital news operations, starting on September 8, 2008 and succeeding Leonard Downie, Jr.^[1]

Early life and education

A native of Boulder, Colorado, Brauchli graduated from Columbia College of Columbia University in 1983. Brauchli was a Nieman fellow at Harvard University from 1991 to 1992.

Career

Before joining the Post, Brauchli was managing editor of The Wall Street Journal'. Brauchli had served 15 years as a foreign correspondent, mainly in Asia, and eight years as a senior editor in New York. Shortly after Brauchli's appointment as managing editor was announced, Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. disclosed a takeover offer for Dow Jones & Co., the Journals parent. Brauchli remained as editor through the acquisition but four months afterwards, on April 22, 2008, he announced his resignation. The Post, under new publisher Katharine Weymouth, announced on July 8 that it had hired him.

During his tenure, the Post won seven Pulitzer prizes, including five for the newsroom, and many other journalism awards. A 2012 account in The New York Times outlined signs and reports that Brauchli's "relationship with the publisher has cooled". It also noted that Raju Narisetti, whom Brauchli had brought with him from the Journal as a "close partner... in the digital reinvention of the newsroom", had left the Post in January. The Times also said that "[b]y one important measure, The Post’s efforts are paying off. Recently, it has averaged 19.6 million unique visitors a month, according to comScore, making it the second-most-visited American newspaper Web site, behind that of The New York Times."^[2]

According to that same article about The Washington Post in The New York Times, "Mr. Brauchli has reacted to the upheaval by overseeing one of the most sweeping and closely watched reorientations of any newsroom in the country. The editors now stress online metrics and freely borrow from the playbooks of more nimble online competitors like Politico and The Huffington Post. The outcome of their efforts could offer a high-profile case study on how a company can foster an entrepreneurial, digital culture while remaining true to its heritage."^[3]

Brauchli stepped down as editor at the end of 2012 and took on a new role working for the Post's parent company.

Personal

Brauchli has been based overseas in Hong Kong, Stockholm, Tokyo and Shanghai. He is married to Maggie Farley, a former Los Angeles Times correspondent. They have two daughters, Zoe and Aria ages 12 and 13.^[4]

References

• Article about his appointment to the Journal managing editor position, The New York Times, 2007/04/19.
• Article about his resignation from the Journal, The New York Times, 2008/04/22.