Raju Narisetti was so important to the Washington Post he’s irreplaceable. Reading between the lines, one gets that sense from the memo that went out today from Washington Post executive editor Marcus Brauchli.

“With Raju’s departure,” Brauchli wrote, “we want to designate some people to pick up critical duties that he handled, at least on a temporary basis.”

The memo goes on to name about a dozen people and their “teams” to handle the tasks left undone when Narisetti left this month for the Wall Street Journal. Brauchli hand picked Narisetti to split managing editor duties with Liz Spayd. He’s handled the Post’s digital side since 2009.

The big winners in the post-Narisetti age are Sandy Sugawara and Katharine Zaleski.

Sugawara, who’s been at the Post for decades, began as a beat writer, moved up to become top business editor and, recently, editor of the universal desk. In her broadened role, she and her team will control the play and timing of news across the print and digital pages. Brauchli demands, “When they come looking for news, please work with them to ensure we’re moving fast, either with staff or wire content.”

Zaleski came to the Post from Huffington Post in 2009 to help spread Post stories across social media networks. She’s now executive director of digital news. Post-Narisetti, Brauchli says she “will be the primary contact for all matters pertaining to digital traffic and engagement. . . .” And she will report directly to Brauchli.

As for Narisetti, he will manage digital networks for the Wall Street Journal, where he and Brauchli both once worked.

At this point, no editors to replace him have surfaced, but Sugawara and Zaleski could be prime candidates.

A decade or so ago, the Washington press corps included bureaus from far-flung newspapers. In the digital age, most bureaus are defunct or depopulated. But there are more reporters than ever covering Washington. The Post remains the largest news operation, with a newsroom staff of just over 600, hundreds fewer than a decade ago. NPR, also based here, has 283. Here are the top ten other news organizations (excluding TV) and the size of their editorial staffs.

Hennenberger's new blog topped the Post's site in its first month. Photograph by Erik Ueke.

The number of Washington Post blogs has topped 100, which raises a question: Has the Post ever seen a blog it won’t publish?

The New York Times gets by with 62 blogs. The Wall Street Journal publishes 53, the Los Angeles Times 30.

When Post national editor Kevin Merida brought on Melinda Henneberger this winter to write about national affairs from a woman’s perspective, blog number 108 was born. She the People was launched in January with 25 contributors, including 11 from the Post.

The Wire depicts in raw detail and dialogue gritty crime scenes in the mean streets of Baltimore. But those scenes are fictional. Testimony in court last week included dialogue of how a murder went down in DC—but it was real. The story was captured by Homicide Watch DC, a website featured in The Washingtonian’s February issue.

Mark Plotkin quit speaking to me about 15 years ago. I had done something to cross him, he thought. It was a mystery to me. Whatever it was he thought I had done made him angry. If we saw each other in a public place, he would ignore me or say something disparaging.

What had I done? Why was Plotkin so angry? What provoked his rage?

Only Plotkin can answer those questions, but sources say it was rage that did him in as political analyst at WTOP. He had been hosting the weekly Politics Program With Mark Plotkin every Friday for the past decade. Jim Farley, WTOP vice president of news and programming, met with Plotkin yesterday and gave him his walking papers.

For the record, Farley said, “We’ve decided to part ways. We met for 45 minutes. There was no rancor.”

No one else would speak on the record, but a variety of sources at WTOP told me Plotkin’s demise had to do with his repeated outbursts of anger at the radio station.

Plotkin would “drop the F-bomb” regularly, one staffer reported.

WTOP valued Plotkin as the foremost political analyst on local matters, and the station sent him to anger-management classes, sources say. Still, the outbursts continued.

Fellow employes started to complain. The matter was bumped up to the station’s human-relations department. Bosses talked to Plotkin repeatedly. In the end, Plotkin’s own pattern of behavior did him in.

Farley is telling people that WTOP’s political coverage will not suffer, but Plotkin was unique. Despite whatever anger issues he might have had, he is one of the preeminent analysts on politics in Maryland, Virginia, and the District. He knew every player and had access to every state house.

Plotkin is irreplaceable. I would tell him, but he’s not talking to me.

Raju Narisetti has fled the Washington Post. Hand-picked by Post executive editor Marcus Brauchli in 2009 to run the Post’s digital side, Narisetti has returned to the Wall Street Journal, where he first met Brauchli. The choice was his. He will say he’s leaving for a better opportunity, but his decision may also signal displeasure with the Post.

Brauchli’s memo announcing Narisetti’s departure was both congratulatory and adoring, giving his sidekick credit for increasing washingtonpost.com’s traffic. Narisetti was a mystery man to Post staffers when he arrived three years ago, and to most he remained a stranger. Brauchli thanked Narisetti for redesigning the Post’s print and digital editions, but many readers of both find them impenetrable and confusing.

The larger question raised by Narisetti’s departure is what effect it might have on the Post’s top editorial team. Narisetti shared the managing editor title with Liz Spayd. Will she take over his digital duties? Will Executive Director of Digital News* Katharine Zaleski move up? Will Marcus Brauchli leave next? Stay tuned.

Text of the memo follows.