David Carr of the New York Times wonders whether the recent aggressive moves by Bloomberg L.P. signal an impending war with Dow Jones & Co., the parent of The Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones Newswires, Marketwatch.com and Barron’s, for business media supremacy.
Carr writes, “In adding muscles for general news and consumer business news, Bloomberg L.P. is positioning itself for what many think will be a winner-take-most race to be the dominant global information provider. Both efforts could position Bloomberg to take on Dow Jones, owned by News Corporation, which has a hold on general business consumers with The Wall Street Journal and a highly-competitive presence in breaking news with Dow Jones Newswires. (Reuters is a business information behemoth with general news chops that must be contended with as well.)
“Bloomberg’s growing battle with Dow Jones took on some momentum back in July, when it grabbed four Pulitzer Prize-winning veterans of The Wall Street Journal. And let’s not forget that Matthew Winkler, editor in chief of Bloomberg, is a Wall Street Journal alum, as is Norman Pearlstine, now chief content officer of Bloomberg. Those kind of journalistic assets probably are not going to content themselves with having their work live within the four corners of a Bloomberg screen, so at some point, this skirmish is probably going to break out into a shooting war.
“Dow Jones has been tacking toward general news ever since Rupert Murdoch bought the company, and despite some public worrying that he would diminish the newspaper, it still is a first-read among much of the business intelligentsia. (The New York Times is a significant player in this clash of titans, but that part of the story is probably best covered elsewhere.)”
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