So the Wall Street Journal, and Dow Jones, have a new owner. Rupert Murdoch.
You’ll forgive me, if I don’t get too excited about this. Certainly, the I’m not going to become the full- goose- bozo- paranoid that the New York Times has become. Certainly, the times and the reaction, is understandable, given that they now have for the first time serious competition in many of their markets. As the Journal says in their editorial this morning: [1]
We like to think our readers buy the Journal because of the credibility built over a century, and we believe this is the heart of the “value proposition” that Mr. Murdoch is willing to pay $5 billion to purchase. No sane businessman pays a premium of 67% over the market price for an asset he intends to ruin.
>There are nonetheless critics, especially in the journalism world, who claim this is precisely what Mr. Murdoch will proceed to do. And they have certainly had a merry time bashing him and the Journal these past few months. Some of these voices, however, are commercial or ideological competitors who have their own interest in undermining the Journal’s credibility.
Both the New York Times and the Financial Times have been especially aggressive in assailing the potential News Corp. purchase of the Journal. These also happen to be the two publications that Mr. Murdoch has explicitly said he might invest more to compete against. Readers can judge if the tears these papers and their writers claim to shed for the Journal’s future are real, or of the crocodile variety.
Then, too, there’s the idea that I don’t share the Liberal paranoia about Rupert Murdoch in general.
The nastiest attacks have come from our friends on the political left. They can’t decide whose views they hate most–ours, or Mr. Murdoch’s. We’re especially amused by those who say Mr. Murdoch might tug us to the political left. Don’t count on it. More than one liberal commentator has actually rejoiced at the takeover bid, on the perverse grounds that this will ruin the Journal’s news coverage, which in turn will reduce the audience for the editorial page. Don’t count on that either.
From what I’m hearing, the largest changes going to be the color, may finally come to the Wall Street Journal.
I suspect that most current readers of the Journal will find that Murdoch and company, were the best fit for the role of new owner of the WSJ. Think about it; can you imagine what would happen to the editorial page of the Journal with the New York Times in charge? Gannett? Better not to imagine it. The stomach acid alone….