Categories: OLD Media Moves

Murdoch not worried about overcoming CNBC hurdle

News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch said on a conference call late Tuesday that he’s not worried about overcoming the hurdle posed by business news cable network CNBC, which has a contract with the Wall Street Journal to provide content until 2012.

Murdoch has agreed to buy the Journal, and he would like to use its content and staff members on his new Fox Business Network.

Multichannel News wrote, “News Corp. chief operating officer Peter Chernin said that he and the rest of the News Corp. management team have been spending a lot of time with FBN executives, including FBN head Roger Ailes, to work on plans for the business network.

“‘We have enormous confidence in their ability to put together a terrific differentiated product that is really going to stand out in this market, generate ratings and consumer excitement on its own,’ Chernin said. ‘And we’ll look at anything that comes from Dow Jones as gravy as it develops.’

“Earlier, Chernin estimated that News Corp.’s total investment in the business channel would be between $150 million and $200 million and that the network should break even in a couple of years.

“Murdoch added that he expects FBN to outpace its rival in total value, pointing to the success of Fox News ChannelÂ over its main competitor, Cable News Network.”

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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.