Robert Thomson was on Tuesday night named managing editor of the Wall Street Journal and editor-in-chief of Dow Jones, in a move seen as signalling Rupert Murdoch’s ambition to drive faster changes at the financial newspaper the News Corp chairman bought last year.

Mr Thomson, 47, is one of Mr Murdoch’s closest lieutenants and used his previous role as publisher to take a hands-on interest in editorial changes which contributed to last month’s departure of Marcus Brauchli as managing editor.