Is Rupert Murdoch preparing to name Rebecca Wade, the editor of UK tabloid The Sun, to be the new managing editor of the Wall Street Journal? That’s the rumor we’re hearing today. (And perhaps the one that Nick Denton called “too crazy for even me to pass on.”) Wade is reportedly close to Murdoch. We’re told that Robert Thomson, the Journal’s publisher, may favor naming Wade to replace Marcus Brauchli, who resigned as editor in April.
Update: Apparently Rebecca Wade spells her name Rebekah Wade. Whatevs.
Updater: Denton confirms that Wade was indeed the crazy story he was hearing.
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Page 3 girls coming to the Journal. Woo Hoo!
Makes sense. Rebekah Wade is (a) a true Murdoch soldier, (b) a celebrity in her own right (in certain Fleet Street/Canary Wharf circles) and (c) as mean and nasty a journalist as you’ll ever find scarfing slime at the bottom of a sewer.
Good Lord, this would make the Moonie-owned Washington Post seem sane by comparison. I weep for the passing of a once great rag.
I hope it’s just a rumor. Rebakah Wade’s behavior and editing have raised eyebrows even on anything-goes Fleet Street. There are moral and ethical underpinnings to being anything resembling a “newspaper of record” and with Wade in the drivers’ seat, the WSJ will forfeit all of that. If Murdoch absolutely must appoint a British editor, why doesn’t he install Les Hinton?