OLD Media Moves

Gotta love Rupert

July 29, 2008

Georgina Prodhan of Reuters reports on the comments made by Marjorie Scardino, the CEO of Pearson, which owns The Financial Times, about News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch and his latest acquisition, The Wall Street Journal.

Rupert MurdochProdhan writes, “It’s hard to dislike a man who loves newspapers so much, says Marjorie Scardino, CEO of Financial Times owner Pearson.

“’He’s made a lot of changes,’ Scardino told journalists on the day Pearson reported forecast-beating results, choosing her words carefully, but adding that the idea that editorial independence would be preserved at the Journal ‘didn’t last very long.’

“Scardino said she didn’t envy the Journal its circulation of 2 million, about four times that of the FT, saying the FT was a ‘niche newspaper’ with a lower cost base. She did, however, praise the journal’s managing editor, Robert Thomson, who just happens to be a former editor of the FT’s U.S. edition. Her verdict on Murdoch? ‘He loves newspapers. It’s hard to dislike a man for that.'”

Read more here. Â

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