Categories: OLD Media Moves

Murdoch has a chance to prove critics wrong

Marketwatch media columnist Jon Friedman writes Wednesday that News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch has the chance to do some good at The Wall Street Journal, where there are journalists who will welcome the new owner.

Friedman wrote, “The spotlight will be on. If there is even a whiff of Murdoch’s presence in the newsroom, pundits and others will savage him for messing with the Journal’s independence.

“Many Dow Jones veterans secretly feel pleased that Murdoch, an aggressive, highly ambitious global businessman, will be running the company now. Above all, the man thinks big and embraces new forms of technologies.

“It’s said that Murdoch intends to take the Journal global and make it a truly international must-read daily. He knows a few things about satellite broadcasting; his eagerness to expand to foreign markets will take care of the rest.

“Some people who know Murdoch well suspect that he will raise the stakes between the Journal and the New York Times, as they vie for supremacy.”

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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.