Murdoch and Dow Jones: A Bad Operetta



A bad operetta is unfolding before us, a lusty production that can only be properly sung with compound German-words and unsettling Minor keys of Rupert Murdoch's ambitions for the nymphy Dow Jones (The Corsair sips a bold, yet unpretentious 1979 Château de Ravignan). Murdoch, a raffish warrior prince, larger than "Kane," caresses the dangling tresses of Dow Jones, in a woodland setting, and sings with an expressive sweetness, of his love and the future of the media. Countertenors The Bancroft Family introduce a note of forbidding pessimism. Says Staci Kramer of Paidcontnet:

"Rupert Murdoch discussed News Corp.’s $5 billion offer during an interview with Fox Business Now’s Neil Cavuto, who is helping plan the Fox Business News Channel. Cavuto repeatedly described the offer as 'generous' and asked Murdoch if it was designed to scare away potential competition. Murdoch’s response: 'Well, I hope so. But we feel it’s worth this. This is the greatest newspaper in America, one of the greatest in the world. It has great journalists which deserve, I think, a much wider audience. We feel that with coming both online and offline, there’s a great deal to be done here.' As for private equity, 'We are paying, offering a very, very high premium, which I don’t think they could reach. They need to leverage with a lot of interest-bearing notes, and this is already at about 50 times earnings.'

On the future of newspapers, Rupert sings, with expressive vocals: ".. the great thing, and the value of financial journalism and high-quality journalism is that you can charge for it. The Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times, I think, are the only two newspapers in the whole world that charge for their online editions."

And, of the business channel, Murdoch sings enchantingly: "I think it will help it, of course. There is a deal already with CNBC. But we just want to have a business channel that lives up to the quality and traditions of The Wall Street Journal, and we think that if we can do that, we will do very well."

Brava! Read Staci D. Kramer's post here (Paidcontent)