Categories: OLD Media Moves

Watching Marketwatch's future

Dan Fost writes in the latest issue of Fortune about the future of Marketwatch after it becomes part of the News Corp. media empire with the acquisition of Dow Jones & Co. later this month.

One of the issues is that News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch wants to make The Wall Street Journal‘s web site free. Fost wrote, “MarketWatch itself could also be threatened by the move. After all, is there any point in having two free financial news sites, MarketWatch and WSJ.com? ‘I don’t see what positioning MarketWatch can have if there’s a free WSJ.com,’ says Rafat Ali, editor and CEO of PaidContent.org.

“In an interview last month, David Callaway, MarketWatch’s editor in chief, said he had had preliminary discussions with News Corp., but would not comment for this story. (News Corp. and Dow Jones declined to comment as well, citing the deal’s pending close. The Dow Jones shareholder vote on Dec. 13 should be the last big hurdle for Murdoch.)

“Last month, however, Callaway noted to me: ‘I’ve always been firmly on the side of eyeballs. That’s what helped build our brand.’

“And a free Journal site wouldn’t necessarily hurt MarketWatch, according to MarketWatch’s co-founder and former CEO, Larry Kramer.”

View Comments

John R says:
December 3, 2007 at 12:24 pm
The way is changing- the nature of conducting business is changing. If I am not wrong - nearly 50% of advertising expenditure in the US alone is being spent on online advertisement and Mr. Murdoch is way ahead o his competitors by planning to make WSJ - a free site and thus bringing in huge visitors and and attract big advertisers - by selling two most important points-
Traffic & the Famous Brand Name that he acquires.
On the otherhand- a subscriber access only limited site won't attract as much traffic and revenue from advertisement plus subscription.
Marketing Radio says:
December 4, 2007 at 1:14 am
John R--I concur. You've nailed it on the head. Attracting gobs of visitors will vastly improve their ability to collect ad revenue from the site which likely dwarfs the subscription revenue.