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

WSJ’s Brown is leaving publication

Ken Brown of The Wall Street Journal is leaving the news organization. He is an…

15 hours ago

Jones will not seek another Dow Jones News Fund board term

Dow Jones News Fund President Brent W. Jones announced at the nonprofit journalism training organization’s…

15 hours ago

Bloomberg hires Clark to cover VC and startups

Jillian Ward, managing editor for U.S. technology at Bloomberg News, sent the following note to…

15 hours ago

Berke of STAT News on the importance of its coverage

Rick Berke, a co-founded and executive editor of STAT News, writes about the importance of…

16 hours ago

Maxwell joins Gizmodo as a tech reporter

Thomas Maxwell has joined Gizmodo as a tech reporter. He previously was at Business Insider covering…

20 hours ago

Banking Times acquires The New Fiver

Banking Times has acquired the domain name "The New Fiver" for an undisclosed amount, aiming…

1 day ago