Crazy Like A Fox, en Business Week:
Why would the wily Australian-born mogul be willing to pay so dearly for a print-heavy company at a moment when newspapers are losing readers and advertisers? The answer takes you into a very Murdochian world that combines legacy, a quest for respectability, and an unerring instinct for what's at the heart of business and economic power.
Carta de Jim Ottaway, accionista de Dow Jones, negándose a la venta (en WSJ o en FT). [La familia Ottaway posee el 6,4% de las acciones tipo B, con doble derecho de voto]:
The sale of Dow Jones to Rupert Murdoch and his News Corp. global media giant would lead to loss of the unique news quality and integrity of The Wall Street Journal and other Dow Jones publications and Internet services, and loss of the independence and integrity of a leading national editorial voice.
Rupert Murdoch comes from a very different tradition of Australian-British media ownership and editorial practice in which he has for a long time expressed his personal, political, and business biases through his newspapers and television channels.
Why Murdoch is good news for Dow Jones, de John Gapper en FT:
He is not the god at whose altar the high priests of US journalism still worship – a beneficent and restrained patriarch who sticks with the separation of news and comment and lets journalists run the show (someone a bit like you, in fact). But he is someone who cares about news journalism and will invest capital and ingenuity in reinventing it. [...]
No one knows where the financial news business is going, but it sure ain’t going to be dominated by a parochial US paper. Every dog has his day and yours has passed. If I were you, I would listen politely to Mr Murdoch, hem and haw reluctantly, ask for $65 a share, and retire.
Peter Kann's Letter to Bancrofts, en WSJ [Kann fue chairman de Dow Jones hasta abril de 2007]:
There is a higher calling to what the people of Dow Jones do each day. They are not merely producing and selling products like corn flakes or computer chips. Rather, they are producing -- in many forms, times and places -- essential publications, news services, and other content sets that inform, educate and enlighten our customers and, more broadly, empower the citizens of free societies. Our news colleagues do this each day by pursuing truth on the basis of facts and by conveying that truth as accurately, honestly and fairly as humanly possible. [...]
Obviously, I cannot prove that these values inevitably would change under the ownership of Rupert Murdoch and his successors. But what I know to be true, based on more than 100 years of Dow Jones history, is that those values have been sustained by each generation of your family. In that sense, history is a reliable guide. [...]
I clearly can understand that in rejecting a takeover offer you are foregoing some financial benefit. To that I can only say that you are not alone in seeing other and even higher priorities. There are many people in our larger society who make career and other decisions that do not always maximize financial benefit. And that also is true of many of the people of Dow Jones. Just consider, for example, the many talented reporters and editors who have worked for the Journal over so many years and how many of them could have made so much more money working in law or banking or public relations. Rather, they devoted their careers, and they still do, to something more important -- to pursuing a form of public service in a company that has seen itself as a public trust and that has been protected by a family that shares that commitment.
Is Murdoch a Force Too Hard to Resist? por Allan Sloan en Newsweek:
We journalists are supposed to be skeptics (but not cynics). Murdoch's current statements about not messing with the Journal notwithstanding, I don't see how anyone in my business who's watched him operate can fail to be skeptical about his promises not to influence the Journal's news pages should he buy Dow Jones. Murdoch's entire history says the opposite. [...]
I hope Murdoch doesn't get control of the Wall Street Journal, but I think he will. Some Bancrofts seem willing to sell, and my bet is that Murdoch can prevail by raising his bid a bit and luring a few more family members to his side.
Murdoch's vision is just what Dow Jones needs, por David Kirkpatrick en Fortune:
I think the trophy is the online business. Of course, Murdoch knows how to run papers as well as anybody. And he will take control of the Journal with gusto I'm sure (and I suspect, contrary to what many say, with respect for its editorial independence and traditions). But this is also the man, more than others in his generation who run big media companies, who has shown he understands how deeply the media world is changing as the Internet's grip grows stronger. And Murdoch's big-picture view is the key to his success and greatness
Rupert Murdoch's stunning $5 billion takeover bid for Dow Jones is the key to News Corp.'s strategy to topple CNBC in the potentially lucrative arena of business-news television.
By making this unsolicited offer, News Corp. chief Murdoch proved -- again -- why he has a reputation as a global media master. Regardless of how observers view him and his media holdings in the U.S. or elsewhere, he understands the ever-changing media landscape better than anyone else. He adjusts to change. He thinks global. He thinks digital. Always, he thinks big.
Why Murdoch wants the WSJ, en The Economist.com:
Some News Corp shareholders are privately furious about Mr Murdoch's willingness to pay such a high price for what they see as the media equivalent of a trophy wife. Yet if the deal goes ahead, it might turn out better than they fear. There are some synergies between News Corp and Dow Jones, as well as fairly similar cultures. Dow Jones has bungled its international expansion and at the same time failed to cut costs at home. Mr Murdoch may indeed “get” new media, and may have spotted lucrative opportunities within Dow Jones. If so, and if his bid succeeds, it would not be the first time that he has proved his critics wrong.
Why? Because he has plenty of money. Believes in the newspaper business. Understands the new multimedia landscape. And, more important than that, there are many family-owned newspapers that: Make less and less money. Are not sure about the newspaper business. And don’t understand the new multimedia landscape. So… It’s a buyer’s time. It’s Murdoch time.
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