Pew | Jim Romenesko | Capital
Wall Street Journal online executive editor Alan Murray will head the Pew Research Center, Pew announced today.
In a memo to staffers, Journal managing editor Robert Thomson said Raju Narisetti will “assume the mantle of digital czar” at the news organization. Murray joined the Journal in 1983 and became digital honcho in 2007. “Digital is a land of many metrics, and the metrics during Alan’s reign have been extraordinary,” Thomson writes.
Murray’s departure crosses his name off the short list of people who may succeed Thomson as M.E. if he relinquishes the role to run News Corp.’s publishing business, which the company plans to spin off. He tells Tom McGeveran and Joe Pompeo the Journal tried to keep him:
Reached by phone, Murray declined to comment on whether or not he’d been in discussions to replace Thomson assuming Thomson does in fact secure the expected promotion. But he did say that Thomson and News Corp. chairman Rupert Murdoch “did their part” to try and keep him around, and that he’s been talking to Pew since the summer.
