By: Michael Calderone

There’s been a lot of buzz in the Washington Post newsroom the past few days that publisher Katharine Weymouth would announce the paper’s next executive editor today.

Problem is: Weymouth’s on vacation all this week, as her assistant informed me yesterday.

But now I’ve learned that the announcement will be taking place early next week — most likely Monday or Tuesday — according to a Post source.

On June 24, I bet former Wall Street Journal managing editor Marcus Brauchli would get the top job, and I’m sticking to that, along with my sources. Brauchli, reached by e-mail, declined to comment.

Current managing editor Phil Bennett, who’s still considered a contender by some staffers, declined to comment, too.

New York Times deputy managing editor Jonathan Landman isn’t considered to still be in contention by several Post staffers, but he hasn’t ruled himself out like Newsweek editor Jon Meacham did. Landman also declined to comment.

WaPo associate editor and columnist David Ignatius was an early candidate, and is also possibly in the running. Although most staffers I’ve spoken to do not see him getting the job.

So next week will finally end the long search for a successor to Len Downie, who’s held the top job for the past 17 years, before announcing that he’s stepping down on Sept. 8.

I’ve heard from a source that Bennett leaves for vacation next weekend, so it would make sense to wrap up the matter soon. Not to mention, there will be plenty of preparations — especially if a Post outsider gets the job — to make by September,  as the paper winds into the home stretch of the 2008 election.

(This post has been updated)

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