Imagining A Murdoch-Owned Dow Jones
from the a-spark-of-vision dept
The endgame appears to be near in the Rupert Murdoch-Dow Jones drama. Yesterday, it was reported that the two sides have come to an agreement over what changes Murdoch would be allowed to make should he assume control of the company. At this point, it all comes down to whether or not the Bancroft family is ready to pull the trigger and actually cede ownership of the company. Assuming the deal does go through, it's natural to wonder what a Murdoch-led Dow Jones would look like. In an interview with Time Magazine (via Romenesko), Murdoch rehashes the standard rhetoric about how it would be foolish to destroy an asset (as many fear) that cost him $5 billion to acquire. Later in the interview, he tosses out the idea of spending $100 million to hire the top 200 business journalists in the world, while turning the Wall Street Journal into a free, online-only newspaper. This isn't the kind of plan that's likely to happen at any point in the near term, but it does reflect a willingness to think creatively. Of course, the idea still rests on the basic notion that the key to a successful media company is to be the owner of the best content. A paper like the Wall Street Journal can do better with this approach than most, because quality business journalism remains valuable. But over time, a strategy based on paying enormous sums to consolidate the world's best business journalism won't be able to overcome the ongoing deflation in the value of content.![Hide This Hide this](https://ii.techdirt.com/s/t/i/topclose.png)
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not to mention
and the top 200 business journalists in the world? wouldn't they already be working for the WSJ?
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Re: not to mention
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For reference, I'm entirely objective. I dumped foxnews.com as my major news site because of the hype some months ago over Britney's missing undergarments, which, sadly, was also present on the other major (and minor) news outlets along with the rest of the garbage they all tend to peddle.
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Not because of their total inability to be even remotely objective? (and despite any claims, no other "camp" comes anywhere near Fox, regardless of the direction of the slant)
Some (if not most) of us objective news consumers have dumped Fox (entirely) years ago, as any objective person can judge that Fox way further out there than "slightly slanted".
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I'm no fan of Murdoch's enterprises; but he is one smart businessman.
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murdoch's - dow...
it scarey on what big bucks can do. This just not good!
Good Day
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Is he setting up for a interactive power play.
News of the World is testing it. All the mobile web user will need to do is qode it.
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