Washington Post is bringing on Marcus Brauchli as executive editor and he's bringing with him a significant change to the Web strategy.

EditorAndPublisher.com reports that Jim Brady, head of washingtonpost.com, expects to merge the print and Web newsrooms sometime after Brauchli takes the reigns. His quote from the article:

"We have decided that having separate newsrooms has reached the end. We have gotten as much out of it as we can. We need to be in one building so we can learn what the other does . . . No decision has been made, but I think there is an agreement that we need to be together somewhere. We have not talked about where. We have talked conceptually about it."

This is a significant revision in ethos for the Posties. Former CEO of Interactive Caroline Little is on record as opposing such a merger last year. She told Poynter:

"We're very fortunate that our Chairman [of the Washington Post Company], Donald Graham, has been enthusiastic [about our online operations] and has not merged us back into the paper. They would just tell us what to do. Almost all the Web divisions of papers have been merged back."

I'm glad to see the newsrooms being combined. In theory, it should create opportunities for better online journalism. That's essentially what Adrian Holovaty said when he dreamed about a combined newsroom last year, before leaving the Post to start EveryBlock.

Here's what he told PBS at the time:

"My preference would be to combine the teams, because there’s a certain level of overhead, like you’re not on the same network so you have to jump through hoops to get on the intranet. And there are cultural things, like you can’t get a reporter to do something because he doesn’t report to us, he reports to another editor. I can see how it was advantageous at the start to have them apart and let them do their own thing while the print folks weren’t paying attention. But now that everyone’s saying ‘the web is important and it’s front and center as the future of our company,’ it makes sense to roll them together now."

A few disclaimers . . .

As this change is made, it seems like a good idea to move with caution. After all, Caroline Little was a very successful CEO and likely had good reason to want separation. Her views might have changed with the new executive editor, but a culture won't change immediately because of one person.

And just so I'm clear. I support melding the print and Web newsrooms but I oppose melding their budgets. Checks and balances are important to ensure progress in innovation. No reporting indicates the Post will combine Web and print budgets.