What Murdoch must do after Dow Jones deal closes

Jack Flack of Conde Nast Portfolio has a list of 10 things that News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch needs to do at The Wall Street Journal after he closes on his deal to purchase its parent company, Dow Jones & Co.

Here are a few:

Keep courting the staffers — Your visit the other day was important.  But keep making it clear that you intend to make the Wall Street Journal the single best place in the world for serious journalists to work. If the union contract is still not resolved, announce key concessions on benefits the day the deal closes, saying that journalism’s top people deserve journalism’s top health care. Focus on rewarding the internal talent, and save poaching for the opinion pages.  Make a “hate-to-lose-ya-mate” phone call to Varadarajan.  He won’t bite, but it’s important that everyone know you made the effort.

Remake Barron’s — Yes, it’s profitable right now, but it won’t be long until the weekly becomes overwhelmed by the 21st century. More important, you must move quickly to fill the holes in your business-news portfolio. Turn Barron’s into a slick weekly magazine with big cover impact. Think of it as a hybrid of BusinessWeek and the New York Post. Launch it by inserting it into the Saturday edition of the Journal for the first year. If that seems too ambitious, then prudently milk it as your predecessors did.

Make brand decisions based on the future, not the past — Do not call it the Fox Business Network.  Nor should you call it, as some suggest, the Wall Street Journal Network. The former is an inferior brand with your targeted viewers, and the latter will have significant limitations as you evolve globally. Call it Dow Jones TV, or DJTV, and use the Wall Street Journal name to brand your smartest programming. Assume that over time you will want the full Wall Street Journal name to evolve into simply the Journal, which will give you much more flexibility around the world and across platforms.

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