Washington Post Publisher Katharine Weymouth’s push to integrate the paper’s print and online operations continues to move at a rapid pace with Jan. 1, 2010 as the target. Weymouth told the staffs Thursday via a memo (headlined “Announcement: Completing the Transition to One Company”) that The Washington Post and Washington Post Digital, which operates washingtonpost.com, will merge by New Year’s Day, winding up a process that began soon after Weymouth became publisher and CEO of the Washington Post Media Group in 2008.

Weymouth told the staff: “Our customers—our readers, users, and advertisers—have always thought of us as one organization—The Washington Post (NYSE: WPO).  Effective January 1, 2010, we will become that single organization. ... Creating one company allows us to maximize our quality and effectiveness by leveraging the talent, processes and resources of these previously separate organizations in a more seamless way.”

Will it help overcome a disastrous 2009? Weymouth promised shareholders at last week’s meeting that she is taking steps to “cut losses dramatically” following a loss of $143 million in the first half of 2009 and that everything possible was being done to reverse the losses without harming long-time viability. But in a stark slide in her presentation, she said, “Doing business as we do it today is not sustainable. We must reduce our costs further. We must reduce our costs fast.” This isn’t likely to make much of a dent now.

Some details from the memo (which was first reported by the Washington Business Journal):

—Staffers of WPD will become WaPo employees. But Weymouth insists that the “unrelenting digital focus that has been WPNI’s hallmark remains central to our strategic vision, and will not change.” Goli Sheikholeslami, GM of washingtonpost.com, will become GM of Digital and VP of Digital Product Development. Her job will be “to work across departments to maintain our focus on the future of our digital business – defining the product roadmap, improving the user experience, and creating new online and mobile revenue streams.” Then again, the act of moving digital inside changes the focus.

— One choice sure to get some comment: digital advertising and digital marketing departments will be set up separately but coordinating with print counterparts. Weymouth explains: “This will enable both the sales and marketing teams to continue to concentrate on providing digital and mobile advertising solutions and creating new online marketplaces.”

Until Weymouth’s appointment in February ‘08, when online and print came together in one Washington Post Co. group, everything was separate. That April, Caroline Little, the head of Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive (now the CEO of Guardian North America and our parent ContentNext Media), resigned and editorial oversight moved to Weymouth as WaPo publisher.  At the time, Weymouth said she was “taking this opportunity to move washingtonpost.com and The Washington Post closer to a true Washington Post Media organization – rather than a newspaper company and an Internet company.” When she hired Marcus Brauchli as WaPo executive editor, that oversight switched to him. Jim Brady, executive editor of washingtonpost.com, left later that year. (He is now U.S. Consulting Editor for The Guardian.)

Late Thursday afternoon, a spokeswoman provided the answers to some of my questions about the merger—but without one important detail: how much this will save the company? She said the merger does not include any staff cuts; everyone will work downtown when the merger is complete (with the exception of those who work in remote offices). The digital advertising and marketing leads will report to Steve Hills, the president and GM.

• WaPo Digital-Print Integration: The Fast Track
• Industry Moves: Jim Brady Leaving WashingtonPost.com
• It’s Official: Former WSJ Managing Editor Marcus Brauchli Will Be Next WaPo Executive Editor
• Industry Moves: WPNI CEO Caroline Little Resigns; WaPo Online Editorial Now Reports To Weymouth