Marcus W. Brauchli will step down as the top-ranking editor of The Wall Street Journal after less than a year in the job, four people briefed on the matter said on Monday, just four months after Rupert Murdoch took control of the paper.

Mr. Brauchli, 46, will announce his resignation soon, according to friends and current and former colleagues, all of whom requested anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter. They differed as to whether he was being forced out as managing editor of The Journal, one of the most coveted posts in journalism, or leaving out of frustration.

The news of his pending resignation was first reported on Time magazine’s Web site.

Since December, when Mr. Murdoch’s News Corporation bought Dow Jones & Company, publisher of The Journal, he has immersed himself in the newspaper’s daily operations and quickly made changes in its shape and style. Friends and colleagues say that Mr. Brauchli has been frustrated with some changes, and with the sense that he did not have the control over the newspaper that he was promised.

On Monday night, both Mr. Murdoch and Mr. Brauchli attended a dinner of the Atlantic Council, a group promoting international cooperation, at which Mr. Murdoch was being honored. Approached there, Mr. Murdoch declined to comment about any change in editors; Mr. Brauchli said, “I can’t talk.”