Matt Murray has been named editor in chief of the Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones Newswires, parent company NewsCorp announced in a statement Tuesday.
Murray replaces Gerard Baker, who served for five years as the paper’s editor-in-chief and will transition to the considerably more nebulous role of editor-at-large starting June 11. Murray was promoted to executive editor last year.
“Gerry has been a very successful editor at a time when journalism has been digitally challenged,” said News Corp Chief Executive Robert Thomson in a press statement.
“I have no doubt that Matt is a worthy successor as Editor-in-Chief and will be a leader of the highest commitment and integrity. His strong reporting and editing background and his passion for the Journal are obvious to all who have the privilege of working with him.”
Murray joined Dow Jones in 1994 as a reporter for the Pittsburgh bureau, before joining the Journal three years later to cover banking.
News Corp also announced that Baker would still be doing a regular weekend column and focusing more energy on a “WSJ-branded” Fox Business.
Baker’s departure is the latest shakeup at the paper, where tensions had reigned among editorial brass about how to strike the right tone with the famously media sensitive president.
Baker was widely viewed as sympathetic to Trump, famously imploring his staff refrain from using the word “lie” to describe the regular stream of falsehoods which come from the White House.
His tenure also saw the ouster of WSJ opinion editor Mark Lasswell last year (unofficially) over his insufficient fealty to the president. Lasswell was replaced by the considerably more pro-trump James Taranto.