Rupert Murdoch Will Buy ‘The Wall Street Journal (projection)

[donsu]

http://newyorkmetro.com/nymetro/news/bizfinance/columns/bottomline/15455/index1.html


The Bottom Line
General Motors Goes Bankrupt
CITIGROUP MERGES WITH GOLDMAN SACHS.
And other business-pages headlines we expect to see in 2006.


-snip-

In 2006, newspapers will discover what it’s like to be General Motors, if not Bethlehem Steel. That’s because classified and display ads and even inserts will continue to gravitate, en masse, to the Net. The bargain that Google offers is so great to local and national advertisers (far more targeted ads, fewer wasted eyeballs) that I think it will double its share this year (Internet ad spending already makes up 5 percent of all ad dollars). Meanwhile, I believe 2006 will be the year that newspapers begin to see double-digit declines in both ads and circulation. For some, like the New York Times, this just means making less money in 2006 than it did in 2005—nothing new there (and I suspect it will make even less money in 2007 than it does in the coming year). But for Dow Jones, in the last years of Peter Kann’s stewardship (he’s retiring), finally enough is enough in the stagnant share-price business, and the Dow board will decide to take Rupert Murdoch’s offer of, say, $50—some $20 less than he would have offered five years ago. News Corp. will promptly close all but the editorial board and merge the news staff with that of the New York Post (don’t think Rupert doesn’t have it in him). Murdoch will also give a joyful Roger Ailes the staff he needs to set up a full-blown TV-business-network competitor to CNBC.

-snip-
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[AntiCoup2K4]

1. There's one merger I could really care less about.

The Wall Street Journal is a right wing biased rag now, as it is, and their op-eds usually read like they came straight from the CIA disinformation desk. So under a Murdoch regime, they couldn't get much worse.

[reality based]

2. The WSJ has had a reputation for very good reporters, however

I doubt that would continue if they become Faux Financial News.

[northzax]

5. true, if anything their reporting is fairly liberal

it is critical of power, and dislikes concentration of economic power along with withheld information. tis only the op ed page that causes such heartburn.

[iconoclastNYC]

3. Merge with the New York Post?

LOL. Very funny. Lost me with that one.

If they tried that the whole WSJ staff would walk off the job.

[iconoclastNYC]

4. I know we all hate Murdoch

The author you should look back to history and look what he did to the liberal Village Voice while he owned it. Which is to say not much. He's a businessman above all else. He's not going to screw over a profit making business just to advance his political agenda. When you build something new (FOX News) you can try to do both, but he's not going to meddle with WSJ in the dramatic fashion the author envisions. It would destroy it.

You don't spend billions of dollars to destroy something (unless your name is Bush)