The Washington Post tonight named former Wall Street Journal editor Marcus Brauchli its new executive editor, replacing Leonard Downie Jr. after 17 years. The transition comes thanks to a new publisher, Katherine Weymouth, who wants to put her own stamp on the paper. With Brauchli, it will be hard to avoid doing just that. While the Post has remade itself over the past decade as a local paper with a focus on national politics, Brauchli is basically a foreign news reporter who, prior to a replacing Paul Steiger atop the Journal masthead, edited global and national news. Then again, we hear Brauchli is prepared to sacrifice much of what he has accumulated at the Journal to take the Post gig - and not just the wealth of his experience.

"Marcus Brauchli, who recently stepped down as managing editor of The Wall Street Journal, is believed by people familiar with the search to be the leading candidate... staffers expect one of the new editor's first tasks may be further downsizing the newsroom." [WSJ]