Critics of the buyout have said Rupert Murdoch would destroy The Wall Street Journal if a News Corp takeover were successful.
The Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones are already a successful, profitable organization, with an editorial page known for its conservative slant.
Predictions of demise of The Wall Street Journal under Murdoch's ownership are as premature as the obituary of Mark Twain that published prior to that author's death a century or so ago.
29 July 2007
Zell lands Tribune Media Company
It's very interesting to see a company the size of Tribune go private ... it'll be even more interesting to see how the newly privately held Tribune goes about maximizing revenues and controlling costs.
On the plus side, no longer being publicly traded should give the company some breathing room. On the minus side, the amount of debt that's being taken on with this acquisition is staggering.
It'll be interesting to see how involved Mr. Zell will be with his new news operations, which include the Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune, and how soon he will insist on making the company more profitable. At least in Chicago, the Tribune is still far ahead of its weaker competitor, the Chicago Sun-Times.
On the plus side, no longer being publicly traded should give the company some breathing room. On the minus side, the amount of debt that's being taken on with this acquisition is staggering.
It'll be interesting to see how involved Mr. Zell will be with his new news operations, which include the Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune, and how soon he will insist on making the company more profitable. At least in Chicago, the Tribune is still far ahead of its weaker competitor, the Chicago Sun-Times.
17 March 2007
National broadcast news has morphed into video version of "National Enquirer"
Gone are the days of serious broadcast journalism, as typified by Edward Murrow's ground-breaking radio coverage of World War II in the 1940s and by his singularly brave coverage of Sen. McCarthy's Communist-scare-mongering of the 1950s.
Gone are the days of Walter Cronkite who, in spite of some left-leaning biases, maintained a sense of decorum and had a clear sense of the difference between news and entertainment.
Today's fixation on Anna Nicole Smith's death day after day after day shows how far broadcast news companies have fallen in their race to the bottom of the barrel in search of ratings and audience share. Tabloid journalism is alive and well today on the airwaves of the major networks, not just in the tabloid papers at your neighborhood grocery store checkout lane.
When will broadcast news see the error of its current way of putting gossip on par with news and return to covering news?
Gone are the days of Walter Cronkite who, in spite of some left-leaning biases, maintained a sense of decorum and had a clear sense of the difference between news and entertainment.
Today's fixation on Anna Nicole Smith's death day after day after day shows how far broadcast news companies have fallen in their race to the bottom of the barrel in search of ratings and audience share. Tabloid journalism is alive and well today on the airwaves of the major networks, not just in the tabloid papers at your neighborhood grocery store checkout lane.
When will broadcast news see the error of its current way of putting gossip on par with news and return to covering news?
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