Matthew Gwyther of The Sunday Times in London profiles Dow Jones & Co. CEO William Lewis in this Sunday’s paper.
Gwyther writes, “Subscriptions are the way to go, according to Lewis, and he says the WSJ has added 300,000 since Trump’s election. It has the advantage of being a necessary tool for most in US business. It’s not competing in the impossibly tough mass-media space in free online content. (In Europe, however, the print version is being canned in favour of a digital-only offering.)
“‘Everyone can now see very clearly the grave problem with fake news. Google has played an incredibly destructive role. And when professional media disappears, bad things follow.’
“Like Trump? ‘Er, well. For some people that is a bad thing.’ He complains bitterly that a rigidly enforced paywall round the Journal’s content means it doesn’t come at the top of a Google search even when it deserves to.
“But isn’t he banging his head against a brick wall? Facebook and Google decline to see themselves as media/content brands. They don’t want to curate and editorialise. They are not there to seek out the truth of stories and what’s going on in world. Isn’t their editorial stance almost amoral? ”
Read more here.
