Categories: OLD Media Moves

Financial Times columnist comes out against Murdoch purchase of WSJ

Martin Wolf, the associated editor and chief economics commentator for The Financial Times, argues in a Sunday column that The Wall Street Journal‘s parent, Dow Jones & Co., should not be sold to News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch even though its journalism would suffer, which he believes would help his newspaper.

Wolf wrote, “Rupert Murdoch is a great businessman. The Wall Street Journal is a great newspaper. Which of these reputations is likely to survive Â Mr Murdochâ€™s prospective purchase of the Journal? Despite the high price he offers, ‘his’ is the plausible answer.

“Business magazines and business television stand on the shoulders of the few newspapers that do the reporting, and analysis, day in and day out. The Journal is the worldâ€™s leader, if only by circulation. It is also two papers in one. Its news coverage is independent, questioning and authoritative. Its research is superb and its editing professional. Meanwhile, its editorial pages are the engine of US conservatism.”

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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.