Murdoch to launch a revenue war againts the New York Times

[Mr. Sparkle]

Source: guardian.co.uk

Murdoch offers big ad discounts in war on the New York Times
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I see in the Financial Times that Rupert Murdoch is offering steep discounts to advertisers prepared to take space in the Wall Street Journal and the New York Post.

It is part of an aggressive attack on the New York Times, timed just ahead of the 26 April launch of the WSJ's special New York edition. Aggressive? He is virtually giving away space by reportedly offering discounts of between 79 and 83% for full-page ads.

Rightly, the FT points out that the strategy recalls the newspaper price wars Murdoch launched in 1993 by cutting the cover prices of The Times and The Sun.

Murdoch is the ultimate media warrior, prepared to risk any amount of money in order to succeed in a circulation battle against weaker rivals. (The NY Times company has nothing like the resources of Murdoch's News Corp).

News Corp evidently plans to spend $30m (£20m) in this and the next fiscal year to fund the expansion of the Journal's New York edition.

We should see this in the context of Murdoch's much-heralded philosophy that editorial content should not be given away for free because journalism costs money.

Yet giving ad space away for virtually nothing, thereby sacrificing revenue to fund journalism, is supposedly ok - as long as it undermines the capability of an opposition that does spend money on journalism.

Helpfully, New York magazine has revealed just how much the Times devotes to its journalism in the city by comparing its newsroom staffing with that of the Journal's/

The result? On nearly every beat, the Times has two reporters in place for each one of the Journal's. (See the full list here).

On the other hand, it's fair to point out that the Journal's push has reinvigorated the journalism jobs market. According to the New York Observer, by hiring 35 staff, the WSJ has contributed to what it calls "a small boomlet" in journalistic recruitment.

But it says there are other forces at work too: Yahoo is hiring, as is Bloomberg, and ESPN has opened a New York branch to hire some of the city's best print sports journalists. Even the Village Voice has been hiring.


Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/greenslade/2010/apr/09/rupert-murdoch-advertising

[onehandle]

1. FYI, You are supposed to use the actual article title as the subject line.

I actually googled 'revence' to make sure it wasn't a real word.

:)

[Mr. Sparkle]

3. FYI ...

Well Spotted

[sufrommich]

6. You might want to edit your typo too. nt

[tularetom]

2. If it's a war to the death, the public is the winner

No matter which of these piece of shit rags go down, we're all better off.

[aquart]

5. No. We're not.

[Crowman1979]

8. Actually internet media is the winner.

TYT, RealNews, Democracy Now, MSNBC, Rachel Maddow, Mike Malloy, I could go on and on!

[sea four]

13. The NY Times is not a "piece of shit rag."

It's the only major national newspaper which is not afraid to question the conservative/status quo point of view. If Murdoch destroys it, we will not be better off. We will just get right-wing bullshit 24/7.

That's basically what he's trying to do. Trying to take over the entire media and force his right-wing views on America. We really need to stop him, by limiting media ownership and banning these kinds of shady business practices, but the democrats seem to be afraid to do that for some reason...

[Crowman1979]

4. Hey Pirate Murdoch! Nobody read newspapers for the ads!

Your shit stinks and everybody knows it. And spraying it with the fresh scent of big advertisers won't help.

[krkaufman]

10. I expect the plan is to lure advertisers away from the NYT ....

.... and bankrupt them. Murdoch could probably run both his papers at a loss for an extended period, floating them with cash from other ventures, and outlast the NYT.

[Crowman1979]

11. It's still going to fail since the print media as a whole is a sinking ship.

Kind of like rats fighting to get out of a flooding sewer.

[Jefferson23]

7. Why doesn't the NYT try something novel, and become a newspaper

to be proud of....they could start by going after Murdoch, Fox, and all the bullshit they produce.

[krkaufman]

9. would seem to be transparent monopolistic practices

... but I doubt anyone will investigate.

[SOS]

12. Australian media billionaire vs. Mexican media billionaire

Murdoch v, Slim in a heavyweight bout!

Let's watch wealthy right-wingers battle for control of the NY newspaper market.
Who will get control of the Venezuelan telecom market?
Rich right-wingers framing their global domination in a local newspaper war.
What fun.