Rupert gets the knife out at the WSJ

Rupert Murdoch seeks $100m cuts at Dow Jones | City | MediaGuardian.co.uk

Well, despite all the protestations that he wasn't a wolf in sheep's clothing Rupert Murdoch has quickly moved to realise a profit on his purchase of the Wall Street Journal.

In a media interview he talks of saving over $100 million. He can only do that by junking the journalism.
Perhaps nude stocks and bonds traders on page 3 Rupert? Why not, it's worked for him before.
Or 'stock exchange bingo' - one lucky reader can win shares in the newly revitalised Dow Jones company, where you don't pay for any fancy overheads - like reporters.

"We've already identified the low hanging fruit will be $100m in savings," Mr Murdoch told the conference in New York, in comments reported by Reuters. "But we're about expanding revenue." Mr Murdoch added that News Corp saw "nothing in sight" in terms of buying further assets.

Thanks, Rupe, an old wolf doesn't lose its bite, just a bit of fur above the ears.

Will this really worry Rupert?

My university, AUT (Auckland University of Technology) has just launched a marketing campaign to promote some of its teaching and research strengths. Part of the campaign is a series of billboards and bus shelter posters around Auckland.



This one is interesting, but I'm not sure Rupert's all that worried about any real competition from the Internet. After all, he recently paid over $500 million for MySpace. And he's famously on the record as saying News International (and its various tentacles) has and will take the Internet seriously. Why wouldn't he? If there's money to be made, Murdoch wants to know about it.

Some reading from Columbia Journalism Review

Dear Reader,

For your reading pleasure, as the Bancroft family makes up its collective mind, we offer three recent offerings from
Columbia Journalism Review on the matter of News Corp. and Dow Jones.
Your choice: short, medium, long. We hope you enjoy all three.

The Editors

The Scorpion and the Frog
CJR's editorial on the Murdoch offer



Why the Dow Jones Vote Matters
Dean Starkman on the mission of The Wall Street Journal



Bending to Power
Murdoch historian Bruce Page on how Rupert built his empire, and how he uses it

Would you buy freedom of speech from these people?

An interesting story this, not that there's anything wrong with free speech in principle. The thing here is that this reads like a News Limited press release. Oh, hang on. It's written by Crhis Merritt, The Australian's Legal Affairs Editor.
Ah, now I remember, is this the same Chris Merritt who's constantly bashing the 'civil libertarian' set over their support for free speech for Australia's Muslim community and demanding that David Hicks be given a fair trial?
The same Chris Merritt who vilified and spewed hatred out at Jack Thomas and the entire Australian legal system when so-called "jihad" Jack was acquitted on terror charges because the Australian police had coerced a confession out of him.
Merritt, you are an unprincipled hypocrite, keep your bloody hands of my freedom of speech you disgusting Murdochoid.

United effort to save free speech
Chris Merritt
Legal affairs editor
10 May 2007

THE nation's top media interests put aside their differences this morning and announced the formation of a coalition aimed at persuading governments and the courts to end the erosion of free speech.

• Video: Australia's Right to Know – full news conference

They will commission an audit of the growing restrictions on the media and recruit a chairman to lead a lobbying campaign.

The initiative was revealed at a press conference in Sydney at which the top executives of rival media companies all warned that free speech was being eroded.

News Ltd chairman and chief executive John Hartigan said that restrictions on free speech meant Australia was “a lightweight democracy” compared with countries such as Canada, New Zealand and Britain.

“Two international studies ranked Australia 35th and 39th on a world press freedom index,” Mr Hartigan said. “We should be up there with other democracies that are way in front of us."

The campaign, which was initiated by News Ltd, publisher of The Australian, is backed by Fairfax Media, the ABC, the commercial radio and television industries, SBS, Australian Associated P ress and Sky News.

Mr Hartigan said he believed other media organisations were likely to join the free speech campaign over the next few days. He said it was not the initiative was not “a political swipe at any political party”

“To trace the degradation in our press freedoms over many recent years shows that parties of all persuasions, whether they be federal or state, have allowed this to continue,” he said.

The coalition, known as Australia's Right to Know, says issues such as suppression orders in courts, refusal of Freedom of Information applications and terror-related laws have eaten away at press freedom.

Representatives of other media organisations were present, including the journalists union, the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance, which outlined the scale of the problem last month in its annual press freedom report.

MEAA secretary Chris Warren said restrictions had become so severe that the public was being denied crucial information.

The main problem areas outlined by the MEAA include:

* The Freedom of Information Act has been rendered almost useless by the High Court and the federal Government.

* Terror trials are being conducted largely in secret under court orders obtained by the federal Government.

* Companies are using strategic litigation to silence public debate.

* Journalists are being threatened with imprisonment for upholding their code of ethics.

* Whistleblowers are being charged with criminal offences for revealing maladministration by the federal Government.

Mr Warren said the greatest crisis for press freedom in Australia was the attack on journalists' confidential sources.

Herald Sun journalists Michael Harvey and Gerard McManus are awaiting sentence for contempt of court for refusing to identify a confidential source in the federal public service.

In an unrelated incident, former Customs officer Allan Kessing is awaiting sentence after being convicted of a criminal offence for leaking documents revealing flaws in airport security.

Federal attorney-general Philip Ruddock promised in 2005 to introduce shield laws to protect journalists' sources but he was unable to secure sufficient state support at a meeting last month.

Murdoch not rich enough yet

Murdoch on owning the Wall Street Journal
So Rupert Murdoch wants to buy the Wall Street Journal for $5 billion, but admits he never reads or understands every article. In an interview with the International Herald Tribune, Murdoch went to great lengths to promote his love of journalism.

While Murdoch went to great pains to explain that he sees himself as a lifelong newspaperman who learned journalism from his father in Australia, he also tried to say that his reputation as an interloper owner was overstated. He said he was not involved with the news operations of the higher-end newspapers, although he takes a closer role in tabloids like The Sun in London and The New York Post.

But his denials about interfering in the editorial work of his many media assets are hollow, to say the least. In Australia, the UK and the US, Murdoch has a long and well-documented history of doing the opposite. His senior editors are all handpicked loyalists and who could forget that every one of Murdoch's papers and the Fox network have been strong supporters of the Bush-Blair-Howard axle of weevils in Iraq from day one.

Nice joke Mr Murdoch, but try pulling the other one.
Interestingly, the Journal itself is reporting this story with a fairly positive spin, even suggesting that Murdoch's lieutenants are keen to win over staff reporters as well as the Bancroft family which currently owns most of the shares in the parent company.
This is not so unusual, the reporting of 'business' news, when the media property itself is part of the story, is often done this way. It's one way of signaling to share holders that the deal is perhaps in their best interests. I'm sure, though, that the union members at the WSJ will not be so easily fooled by the snake oil merchants promising them the moon.

BTW: you can actually watch the great documentary about Fox News, Outfoxed, on YouTube. If you haven't seen it, it's not a bad way to spend a couple of hours in front of the computer not downloading you know what.