p2pnet - rss feed: Murdoch buys the WSJ
p2pnet news | Advertising:- Once upon a time, newspapers existed to disseminate news and information. Advertising provided some of the income through which they were able to do this.
Not any more. In the 21st century, in much the same way television programmes are what you see in between ads many, if not most, mainstream print and online newspapers exist primarily as advertising and promotional vehicles with content as the padding, and it’s even worse online with Google and Microsoft constantly devising new ways to force advertising in front of surfers.
So one way or another, content is still king. Without it, there’s no advertising. The trick is to offer content which’ll attract the largest audiences which are, almost by definition, the lowest common denominators. And Rupert Murdoch is an expert at that.
He epitomises the media baron of this century, and the last. His personal views are firmly imprinted in and on the media he owns and it seems he’s about to acquire one the world’s most respected business organs, Dow Jones & Company’s Wall Street Journal.
This doesn’t bode well for the New York Times and the Financial Times, the WSJ’s closest rivals, says the New York Times going on:
“His strategy will probably include aggressively undercutting advertising and investing heavily in editorial content - particularly in Washington and international news - absorbing losses at first to win the longer-term war.”
And, “At its most ambitious, Mr. Murdoch’s vision for Dow Jones would establish The Journal as the rival to The Times in setting the daily news agenda of the country.
“The vision has a business corollary: by broadening The Journal’s influence beyond pure business readers, Mr. Murdoch wants to reposition it as not just the world’s leading financial newspaper, but the world’s leading business journalism source for consumers.”
The story goes on:
The paper has already tried this with softer service features and its Saturday edition. Reorienting the newspaper further for consumers would fit with two other aspirations Mr. Murdoch has. One is to build his nascent Fox Business Network, which begins in 30 million United States homes this October, into a viable contender with Bloomberg Television and CNBC, which have much larger subscriber bases both at home and abroad.
The Journal already has a deal to provide news content exclusively to CNBC, an agreement that the News Corporation discovered is ironclad until 2012. Any move to tie The Journal to the new Fox business channel will require disentanglement. In the meantime, the business channel, which is scheduled to begin operation on Oct. 15 under the direction of the Fox News chief executive and chairman, Roger Ailes, is being readied on the presumption that it is a stand-alone business.
Mr. Murdoch’s second and overarching vision is to resurrect the newspaper industry by integrating print and video online and building brands around the world.
Part of that involves tapping into Dow Jones’s Web properties - it owns not just The Journal but also the investing weekly Barron’s, Dow Jones Newswires and the consumer-focused Web service MarketWatch.com - to create an online platform for all of the company’s newsgathering operations around the world. Another part would be using the company’s Fox and Sky News video outlets as sources of video content on the new sites.
The New York Times also suggests News Corporation is, “keen to explore whether more of that content ought to be offered free online to increase the audience and attract advertising, while keeping subscribers by offering more premium services.
A more open WSJ.com would be able to attract more advertising, but also potentially distribute that advertising across the News Corporation’s online footprint.”
And buying Dow Jones, “could set the stage for the eventual move of Mr. Murdoch’s son James to the United States to oversee the company’s print, television and online network businesses,” with Fox News chief executive and chairman Roger Ailes, “playing a senior role”.
However, Murdoch’s acquisition of the Wall Street Journal won’t mean cataclysmic changes —– for the time being, at least.
He’s agreed to a, “series of measures intended to protect the paper’s editorial independence from corporate interference, something the media billionaire has been known to engage in over the years at other newspapers he owns,” says the WSJ, considerably understating the situation.
“Top editorial executives cannot be removed or added without the approval of a new oversight board, but Mr. Murdoch can make changes on the business side.”
MediaGuardian.co.uk is running a blow-by-blow timeline of events. It concludes:
“July 31 - Ahead of scheduled board meetings for both Dow Jones and News Corp, reports emerge of sufficient Bancroft family backing for Mr Murdoch’s deal to succeed.”
Also See:
New York Times - Guessing Murdoch’s Strategy for The Journal, August 1, 2007
MediaGuardian.co.uk - Dow Jones: Murdoch’s long game, August 1, 2007
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