Unstoppable now

 

 

How about paying millions of Rupees for a second-hand Mercedes Benz to an owner who tells you which songs you cannot play on its music system - and who also insists that the chauffeur must stay on. You probably wouldn’t do something like that and neither will Rupert Murdoch. That is precisely what the media world fears as Dow Jones, the publisher of the Wall Street Journal, is reported to have agreed in principle to a $5 billion takeover bid by Murdoch’s News Corp, although the Bancroft family, that controls the company, remains divided on the deal. Some Bancrofts - as well as many Dow Jones reporters and editors fear Murdoch’s interference in the company’s news operations, while other members were attracted by the $60-per-share price that News Corp offered, which was a 65 per cent premium on the market price.

The Wall Street Journal, founded in 1889, is the most prominent daily business publication in the US with a circulation of 2.06 million and 931,000 online subscribers. Accord to the grapevine, Murdoch had earlier agreed in principle to some guidelines that will keep him at an arm's length from the Wall Street newsrooms.

There is consternation that Murdoch will meddle in the Journal’s editorial processes, perhaps skew them politically and threaten top editors and others at the Journal. Their views are seconded by Roberto Savio, Dow Jones expert and Secretary General of the reputed media watchdog group ‘Media Watch Global’. Savio told TSI: “There are several ways in which control can be exercised over an organisation, and no legal document can keep Murdoch and his executives from changing the culture at Dow Jones and merging the Journal, Market Watch and other Dow Jones entities with Fox News Channel and Murdoch’s myriad other holdings. That’s exactly why Murdoch is so interested in Dow Jones.”

If Savio’s dire predictions come true, the Media world might witness its worst phase of oligarchic journalism.