For those of you who haven’t been paying attention to the media this summer, listen up! Rupert Murdoch finalized his purchase of the Wall Street Journal a few weeks ago for a mere $5 billion in a deal which included Dow Jones & Company.
In case you haven’t heard of one of the most powerful men in the world (really, he kind of is), Rupert Murdoch is the media guru who currently owns News Corporation (New York Post, Chicago Sun-Times, Fox television network and MySpace.com among many others).
Murdoch’s growing media monarchy extends around the world from Australia to Britain. The idea of one company owning more than 100 newspaper and television networks worldwide, book and magazine publishers, film productions and most recently, Internet sites is a bit scary. The monopoly over media companies is beginning to test the boundaries of our cherished First Amendment; more specifically, freedom of the press.
Who are we kidding? It’s not like the Wall Street Journal was an unbiased paper to begin with. Its conservative fan base will continue to absorb the paper’s right-wing business savvy knowledge. After all, the Wall Street Journal is the best at what it does. No other news source covers business the way it does.
Despite Murdoch promising to keep his nose out of the editorial side of the paper, we find it hard to believe his views won’t creep in every now and then.
Meanwhile, we can’t help but wonder if this is all a big publicity stunt aimed at the debut of the new Fox Business Channel launching the end of this year.
It’s no secret that he is gunning for CNBC, and this newest purchase only helps him in that pursuit.
It’s been suggested that Murdoch intends to lower advertising prices to entice companies to stray from the Web and back to his paper, all the while warding off competition for ad space in other publications such as the New York Times.
Cutthroat?
Yes.
We can’t say we are surprised, but that doesn’t make it any less sad for the newspaper industry.
All we can do is hope that the Journal can maintain its prestige while Murdoch lines his pockets.
Too much to ask for? We’ll find out…
