Categories: OLD Media Moves

Harsh coverage almost killed Dow Jones deal

News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch said Tuesday that the “harsh” coverage of his attempts to purchase Dow Jones & Co., the parent of The Wall Street Journal, almost killed the deal.

Peter Lauria of The New York Post wrote, “‘I spent the better part of the past three months enduring criticism normally leveled at a genocidal tyrant,’Â Murdoch said. ‘If I didn’t think [Dow Jones] was such a perfect fit – with such unlimited potential to grow on its own and in tandem with News Corp.’s assets – believe me, I would have walked away.'”

Lauria also added, “Murdoch said there are huge opportunities ‘to pair the electronic assets of Dow Jones with the digital assets of News Corp,’ which are already strong performers. News Corp.’s digital unit Fox Interactive media posted its first full-year profit in fiscal 2007, and revenue at social-networking site MySpace could be more than $800 million in 2008.

“Murdoch said execs were currently debating the future of the Journal’s subscription-based Web site. ‘It’s expensive in the short term, but in the long term it could be a wonderful thing to do,’ Murdoch said of making WSJ.com a free site.”

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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.