Murdoch to WSJ staff: You've set a high bar

Richard Perez-Pena of The New York Times writes Thursday that News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch sought to alleviate any concerns that the staff of The Wall Street Journal might have about his ownership of the paper by meeting with them shortly after the deal closed.

Perez-Pena wrote, “A few hours later, Mr. Murdoch assured Dow Jones employees that while they might be nervous about the change, his aim was to make The Journal better and more competitive. Standing in The Journal’s main newsroom in lower Manhattan, he told hundreds of employees — some listening in by phone — that he understood ‘the very high bar you’ve set for yourselves,’ adding, ‘If anything, you’ll find we set a higher bar.’

“The legal and operational handoff from one company to the other was already taking place by midday. Several high-level Dow Jones executives were told to vacate their office by day’s end, and in some cases their successors are expected to be in place Friday morning, according to Dow Jones officials who were briefed on the matter.”

Later, Perez-Pena noted, “Along with Mr. Murdoch, Mr. Thomson and Mr. Hinton also addressed Dow Jones employees Thursday, and all three said that The Journal must improve and Dow Jones must be the world’s pre-eminent source of financial information. ‘While it’s right to be respectful of the past, these days it’s certainly fatal to be haunted by history,’ Mr. Thomson said. ‘He who stands still will be overrun.'”

Read more here.