Categories: OLD Media Moves

Examining Murdoch and Bloomberg

David Carr of the New York Times writes Monday about Rupert Murdoch, who owns The Wall Street Journal, and Michael Bloomberg, whose business news media empire keeps growing.

Carr writes, “As business reporters, we tend to overanalyze the titans among us, because, well, they aren’t like us.

“Watching Mr. Murdoch, who controls and owns big chunks of a movie studio, a cable news channel and newspaper and television properties all over the world, and Mr. Bloomberg, who owns a worldwide terminal and data business, along with various media assets, it’s easy to guess that the empire-building is all part of one, huge unified plan.

“But in some respects, they remind me of other newspaper owners in various sized towns that I have covered — men with an immense appetite for power who want nothing so much as to be in the middle of things. Mr. Bloomberg and Mr. Murdoch just have many more zeros behind their net worth, and global empires to match.

“To project might, few things are as effective as owning big, throbbing media properties. Since returning to his company, Mr. Bloomberg, 72, has dedicated a large amount of money to remaking his media operations, including a reorganized website unveiled last week. By all reports, he has spent time tinkering with even the most minute aspects of the redesign, despite that being a tiny part of his company.

“Mr. Murdoch vastly overpaid for The Journal, and continues to support the money-losing New York Post. When News Corporation split two years ago, he protected his beloved newspaper assets in a well-funded new company. He is, by all accounts, highly involved with his papers and finds no detail too small to merit his interests.”

Read more here.

Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.

Recent Posts

Dynamo hires former Business Insider executive editor Harrington

Former Business Insider executive editor Rebecca Harrington has been hired by Dynamo to be its…

2 days ago

Bloomberg TV hires Kerubo as desk producer

Bloomberg Television has hired Brenda Kerubo as a desk producer in London. She will be covering Europe's…

2 days ago

Jittery CNBC staff reassured by new boss

In a meeting at CNBC headquarters Thursday afternoon, incoming boss Mark Lazarus presented a bullish…

2 days ago

Making business news accessible to a wider audience

Ritika Gupta, the BBC's North American business correspondent, was interviewed by Global Woman magazine about…

2 days ago

Rest of World hires Lo as China reporter

Rest of World has hired Kinling Lo as a China reporter. Lo was previously a…

2 days ago

Bloomberg rises to No. 7 biz news website

Bloomberg News saw strong unique visitor growth to its website in October, passing Fox Business…

2 days ago