Neuharth: Murdoch won't piss off all the WSJ people

In an interview with Nat Ives of Advertising Age, USA Today founder Al Neuharth talks about what he thinks News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch will do with The Wall Street Journal once he closes on the deal to buy its parent.

Here is an excerpt:

Advertising Age: How will Rupert Murdoch change The Wall Street Journal itself?

Al Neuharth: Rupert will be hands-on for the Journal’s remaking. He already publicly has criticized the Journal for stories that are too long. That means, among other things, that he will explain to Wall Street Journal reporters and editors the difference between in-depth and longwinded, which they need to learn anyway. He’s also said he will put more general news in the Journal. My hunch is that he wants to do that to really target readers of USA Today and The New York Times, who have financial interests and general interests too. … He won’t go as far as USA Today has, and he won’t go as far as he has with the New York Post. He’s not going to piss off all the people at the Journal or all the longtime readers too much. He can’t afford to do that. At the same time, he knows that dull and grey doesn’t sell anymore. He will gradually move in the direction of attracting general-interest readers while holding core business-interest readers.

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