Rupert Murdoch seals a $5-billion deal for the Wall Street Journal

the.point.is. news agency

Dow Jones & Co. Inc.’s controlling Bancroft family has accepted on Tuesday July 31 2007 News Corp.’s $5-billion offer to buy the publisher of the Wall Street Journal.
The media mogul promised he would not interfere with the Journal’s newsroom.
For Robert Jensen, professor of journalism at the University of Texas, considers the deal as a “disaster for democracy”

New York. Rupert Murdoch finally fulfilled his dream. On Tuesday July 31 2007, he sealed a deal with the Bancroft family to buy Dow Jones, the publisher of the Wall Street Journal, for $5 billion. In a deal Robert Jensen, professor of journalism at the University of Texas in Austin, calls “disastrous for democracy” (read below), the Journal will now join the ranks of more than 100 newspapers worldwide owned by News Corporation, Mr. Murdoch’s media empire.

The Journal will undoubtedly be the most prestigious name in a list that includes the Sun, a British tabloid, and the New York Post. The 76-year old chairman of News Corp also owns numerous TV networks such as Fox in the U.S. and BskyB in the UK.

With its daily circulation of 2.1 million copies, the WSJ is the U.S. second largest paper behind USA Today. Its acquisition by News Corporation might speed up the profound mutation of the media landscape in the US. Mr Murdoch might use the WSJ to provide news for it’s the Fox Business News channel he will launch in October. He will have to deal with an agreement the Journal already has until 2012 with CNBC, Fox Business News’ future competitor.

Mr Murdoch, whose group also owns myspace.com, plans to develop its online activities. The WSJ stands out among newspapers by its ability to attract 900,000 paying subscribers to its website. While newspaper circulation is slipping in the US, the online market is growing. According to the Newspaper Association of America, more than 59 million people visited newspaper websites during the second quarter of 2007, a number that represents a 7.7 percent increase over the same period a year ago.

The Dow Jones deal announced on Tuesday July 31 2007, put an end to a long battle over the control of the Wall Street Journal. The Bancroft family, who owned Dow Jones and the Journal since 1902 and had 64% of the voting rights, had initially rejected the deal in order to preserve the WSJ’s independence. Mr Murdoch has a long history of using his papers such as the New York Post and the Sun in the UK to promote his conservative agenda. His news channel Fox News, has been a staunch supporter of George Bush and of the war in Iraq. Murdoch promised he would not interfere with the paper’s newsroom and has agreed to the creation of a five-member board, whose initial members would be jointly chosen by both News Corp. and Dow Jones, with the power to approve the hiring or fire top editorial officials.

Jean-Cosme Delaloye

“These deals are disastrous for democracy”

Interview of Robert Jensen, professor of Journalism at the University of Texas in Austin

What do you think of the Dow Jones-Murdoch deal?
It is nothing different from the trends in media ownership in the last 25 years. Since the 1980s, there has been a strong move toward consolidating the mass media. It is the consequence of policies allowing this kind of consolidation of media ownership and of economic realities. These deals and trends are in general a disaster for democracy. Diversified ownership is better than concentrated ownership. The consolidation of media groups is weakening an already weak public broadcasting system in the U.S.

What kind of impact will this deal have on the media landscape in the U.S?
It is an important deal. Today, we have three major national newspapers in this country: the Wall Street Journal, USA Today and the New York Times. Otherwise, we have local monopolies. There are only a few independent family-owned newspapers. And they are in small cities. In bigger cities, economics are such that you have to be part of a big group to survive. There is some competition in television on the national level. But one should be aware that we have a lot of different channels but a unification of content.

Can Rupert Murdoch resist the temptation to use the WSP to promote his conservative views?
The editorial page of the Journal is already a right-wing vehicle. So there is not much damage he can do there so to speak. But Murdoch could do what he did with his channel Fox News and shape the news content to transform it into an ideological vehicle.
J-C De

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