More on the Dow Jones Shake-Up

Yesterday, Dow Jones CEO Richard Zannino stepped down, and reports pegged his successor as longtime News Corp. executive Les Hinton.

Today comes more detail, though not all of it consistent. First, some intelligence on what comes next from the Wall Street Journal, which ought to know:

Among the executives expected to follow Mr. Zannino out the door are the Journal's publisher, Gordon Crovitz, Dow Jones Chief Financial Officer Bill Plummer, General Counsel Joseph A. Stern and the company's corporate communications chief, Linda Dunbar. Mr. Crovitz is expected to write a column for the Journal's editorial page.

(Indeed, Crovitz announced his resignation today.)

As for yesterday's claims that Robert Thomson, soon-to-be-ex-editor of Rupert Murdoch's Times of London, would replace Crovitz, it turns out those were both correct and incorrect. Consistent with what I'd heard, Thomson will not replace Crovitz, per se:

While Mr. Thomson will have the publisher's title, the job is likely to be defined differently than in the past. Mr. Thomson isn't expected to have purview over the business side of the Journal, as Mr. Crovitz did, and instead will concentrate on editorial matters. Among those reporting to Mr. Thomson will be both Journal Managing Editor Marcus Brauchli and Journal Editorial Page Editor Paul Gigot, a reporting line defined by the editorial agreement hammered out during the deal negotiations and meant to insulate editorial and news operations of Dow Jones publications from News Corp's business affairs.

The Journal says Zannino will leave "with a payout of around $19 million." The New York Times, however, says Zannino's "exit package is worth more than $26 million, including $3.4 million in severance pay and nearly $7 million in shares."

The Times also offers some insight on why Hinton got the job:

Mr. Hinton, 63, a former reporter who has worked under Mr. Murdoch since the 1960s, has cut costs at News Corporation's British papers and more tightly integrated their operations -- experience that could help fold Dow Jones into its new parent.

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