WSJ reporter on leave to write book on Murdoch deal

Wall Street Journal reporter Sarah Ellison will take a one-year leave from the paper to write a book about News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch‘s acquisition of Journal parent Dow Jones & Co., writes Leon Neyfakh of the New York Observer.

When Ellison returns to the paper, Murdoch will be her boss. The deal is expected to close by the end of the year.

Neyfakh wrote, “Ms. Ellison would not comment further on what will be in the book, but George Hodgman, her editor at Houghton Mifflin, said the book will contain new reporting.

“‘Of course it will have new information,’ Mr. Hodgman said. ‘We think that [the takeover] is the perfect vehicle to really look at Murdoch in action. There’ve been several biographies and there’ll be several more, and I think we’re much more interested in, you know, an action-oriented narrative of the takeover not weighted down with a lot of biographical history on Murdoch. We’re interested in a page turner about the era, and the change of the media with this as a very active central narrative.'”

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