Jeff Bercovici of Conde Nast Portfolio talks to Paul LaMonica, author of “Inside Rupert’s Brain,” a book about News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch, known in the past few years for his purchase of the parent of The Wall Street Journal and for starting Fox Business Network.
Here is an excerpt:
MM: Fox Business Network: Will Murdoch prove the doubters wrong again, or are the odds just too long this time?
PL: I think the odds are too long. It’s somewhat ironic or paradoxical that obviously this is time where there is intense interest in financial news, so I think it’s kind of interesting that a network such as his would not be succeeding at this time, but part of the problem is because the economy and the markets are always in the news, it’s really not just facing competition from CNBC, but from CNN and MSNBC and Fox News and all the major networks, too. It would’ve been one thing to launch a business network if the market was doing well. But because the economy is in such poor shape, he faces the dual challenge of trying to supplant CNBC as well as his own 24/7 news network. Fox News is obviously not going to cede interest in an economic story just because there’s Fox Business.
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