WSJ to name Wheatcroft as Europe editor - source

NEW YORK, June 15 (Reuters) - The Wall Street Journal plans to hire Barclays (BARC.L) nonexecutive director and veteran newspaper editor Patience Wheatcroft to run its European edition, a source with knowledge of the matter told Reuters on Monday.

The move, which could be announced as soon as this week, is a bid by the Journal and its owner News Corp (NWSA.O) to raise the profile of the paper's European edition with a name well known in financial and media circles, the source said.

Wheatcroft was business and city editor of The Times of London from 1997 to 2006, according to a biography posted on Barclays's website. The Times, like the Journal, is part of News Corp. Robert Thomson, the Journal's top editor, previously ran the Times.

She also worked at the Sunday Telegraph in 2006 and 2007 before joining Barclays.

Wheatcroft also is a nonexecutive director of property investment company Shaftesbury PLC (SHB.L), a member of the UK/India Round Table and a member of the British Olympic Association Advisory Board, according to her biography.

At the Journal, Wheatcroft will take over the European edition from Daniel Hertzberg, who is retiring after more than three decades at the paper.

Almar Latour, the Journal's online managing editor, is taking over the Asian edition.

The news first was reported last Thursday in British newspaper The Independent, which did not cite a source. (Reporting by Robert MacMillan; Editing by Brian Moss)