Categories: OLD Media Moves

Ottaway vs. Murdoch

Reuters reporter Robert MacMillan posted part of his interview with former Dow Jones executive James Ottaway Jr. on the Reuters blogs about News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch‘s bid to buy the parent of The Wall Street Journal.

Here’s part of it:

Q: Why you?
A: I’m no longer an insider… The Bancroft family is so divided… It’s almost impossible to expect them to have one statement they all agree on. Dow Jones directors are insiders, so they are by definition not supposed to talk. The management who know about the offer and terms and discussions are insiders; they’re not supposed to talk about it. It suddenly dawned on me after a week went by that I was the only person who could speak out in public.

Q: Why do you care?
A: I know and care about this company deeply, and thought: Someone has to speak about the larger issues involved.

Q: What about investors who snapped up the stock on news of a bid?
A: Those guys are snakes. Their job is to make money any way they can do it. They don’t care about Dow Jones. Their job and interest is to make a fast buck.

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.

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