As an academic subscriber to the W$J, I get both the paper version and the online version. I almost never read the paper, but I visit the online site many times a day. Now Rupert Murdoch is talking about bringing down the wall to the online Wall Street Journal. If he does that and FT follows suit, I could save myself a couple a hundred dollars per year.
Earlier this week, Los Angeles Times media critic Tim Rutten suggested on Marketplace that Murdoch might turn the W$J into a "general interest national newspaper" -- even adding a sports section -- in which case The New York Times "had better worry!" Oddly, this speculation followed an introduction in which he observed, "Rupert Murdoch has an almost unbroken line of failures with American newspapers."
Obviously, we don't know the big plan here, but Murdoch must know that he cannot alienate business readers, the core audience for the Journal. I agree with Rutten that the Journal may benefit tremendously from its new affiliation with companies that can provide video. That looks like the low-hanging fruit. Not a sports section.
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1. Posted by Pablo H on August 10, 2007 @ 13:56 | Permalink
The WSJ actually does already have some Sport's content, though I may be the only person that ever reads it.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118676133264594350.html
The Number's Guy columns also often look at the business and stats behind sports current events.I normally really enjoy them.
2. Posted by Gordon Smith on August 10, 2007 @ 14:22 | Permalink
Good catch, Pablo. I forgot about that column. For some reason, I usually miss it, though I have always enjoyed it when I read it.
3. Posted by Jake on August 10, 2007 @ 19:02 | Permalink
It's amusing that a LA Times media critic spreads conjecture about what Murdoch might do with the WSJ. What an "authority."
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