NYT to WSJ: Tell Murdoch “Drop dead”
Newspaper editorials rarely give advice to competing newspapers, but the family-owned The New York Times today urged family-owned Dow Jones Inc. and The Wall Street Journal to rebuff media mogul Rupert Murdoch’s bids to buy the organization.
Speaking of Murdoch’s courting of the owners of Dow Jones, the Bancrofts, the Times editors wrote:
Mr. Murdoch has dangled a hefty $5 billion before the family that has controlled The Journal for more than 100 years. Frankly, we hope the Bancrofts will find a way to continue producing their fine newspaper, or, failing that, find a buyer who is a safer bet to protect the newspaper for its readers.
Murdoch lords over a global media empire that includes outlets as diverse as Fox News Network, MySpace and The Times of London. Murdoch wants his media outlets to make money, so many observers — including the NYT — fear he will emasculate the fiercely independent journalism of the WSJ. Despite earlier promises to stay out of the prestigious London Times‘ news operations, Murdoch has quashed some news stories that might impinge on his bottom line.
Family-owned media outfits are a dying breed. It’s a rule of thumb that family-run enterprises rarely survive the third generation. We know all about this in Louisville, when the Bingham family sold The Courier-Journal and The Louisville Times to the Gannett Corp. in 1986, after controlling the C-J/T for almost 70 years.
Profit margins on print media are tight, if the newspapers manage to make any money at all. The NYT and WSJ are two of the exceptions, bolstered by their worldwide reputation for quality journalism and hefty ad revenues. Local papers have a tougher hill to climb, since they have smaller markets and competition from the big guys, including broadcast and cable stations.
So, the grandchildren and great-grandchildren of a newspaper’s founders have to decide between carrying on the family business or making money. It understandable that they frequently decide to make (quick) money by selling the papers. Publishing good newspapers is really hard work.
Some family-owned papers, like the Courier-Journal and Times, try to emulate The New York Times. They place journalistic ethics above the profit margin. Others of course are just plain rags. Regardless, selling out to a national corporation generally sacrifices the local focus of a paper and sometimes depresses the quality.
Louisville newspaper readers, feel free to chime in here.
Big media corporations, like Murdoch’s News Corp. and the Gannett Corp., emphasize profitability over fair, honest and tough journalism. They say they don’t, and the changes are slow and subtle, but Big Media homogenize their products to reduce costs. It’s just business. Ad space increases, while news content decreases. Locally produced copy dwindles, while wire-service and corporate news copy occupy more column-inches. Publishers exert pressure on the news departments to ease off on touchy subjects.
The editors at the NYT know all this stuff. From their lofty heights, they can see the landscape of newspapering changing, as Big Media buy up more and more local papers. As they state the case, “When the full corporate culture takes hold, history shows that costly and expert news operations do not flourish.”
We can only hope the Bancrofts do not eat of the apple that Murdoch offers them.
