Rupert Murdoch is launching a full-frontal charm offensive to convince the world he would actively maintain the Wall Street Journal’s editorial independence and invest in journalism if Dow Jones approves News Corp’s $5bn bid to buy the company, notes Reuters.
In an interview published in the New York Times, Murdoch suggested his reputation as an interloper owner was overstated, and said he would propose the Bancrofts — Dow Jones’ controlling shareholders — set up a separate board for the Journal to ensure its editorial independence.
The Journal, meanwhile, reported that Mr Murdoch is planning to take his case for buying Dow Jones to the Bancrofts and the newsroom of the flagship newspaper.
In his NYT interview, Mr Murdoch also said he wouldn’t meddle in the Journal’s journalism or cut staff. There is more than a little irony in this pledge given the rather distinctive – and distinctively different - approaches being taken by Mr Murdoch’s flagship newspapers in the UK and in Australia to the story.
In the UK, The Times has confined itself to a minimalist – and sober – approach, worthy of say, a mid-size investor’s slightly troublesome takeover of a Newcastle widget-maker. In Australia, meanwhile, the newspapers owned by News Ltd (News Corp’s Australian arm) went for the “full slaver”, according to Crikey.com.au, the Australian business and media website, which noted that News Ltd’s flagship paper The Australian ran 10 articles and commentaries on the News Corp bid on a single day, some of which focused on the influence Dow Jones’ dual share structure gives the Bancrofts without mentioning News Corp’s dual structure.
The Times, to be fair, did mention News Corp’s dual share structure in a column by Dan Sabbagh, but overall coverage by the two groups is hardly going to reassure Dow Jones’ owners and its journalists – already planning an anti-Murdoch campaign – of full independence in covering the affairs of the boss without fear or favour.
Also coming at an awkward time is a less public media furore in Australia about the recent spiking of a – rather unflattering – profile of Mr Murdoch’s wife, Wendi Deng, by the Sydney Morning Herald, the flagship paper of Fairfax. Although the Herald is a competitor of News Ltd papers, Mr Murdoch owns a 7.5 per cent stake in Fairfax.
The story, a vast 10,000-word profile that took writer Eric Ellis three months of research across the world, was commissioned by the Herald’s Good Weekend magazine which abruptly cancelled publication in late April.
While the full Deng article will inevitably pop up elsewhere, Crikey.com unveils some of the anecdotes that Good Weekend thought “too hot” to publish – mainly (critical) insights from Ms Deng’s former colleagues into her rather robust ambitions as an intern at Mr Murdoch’s Star TV in Hong Kong, and a re-investigation of salacious content from The Wall Street Journal’s article in 2000 (the authors of which, if still at the Journal, may be feeling nervous about Mr Murdoch’s bid).
The global publicity about “Fairfax’s spinelessness” has driven hot demand for the Ellis profile of Wendi Deng, notes Crikey in a separate comment. “We still have no answers as to why the story was pulled, but the buck ultimately stops with Fairfax chairman Ron Walker who, after the Rural Press shareholder vote on 19 April, was quoted as saying: ‘I’ve known Rupert Murdoch for 45 years, I speak to him regularly, he’s a great friend, and we co-exist together in the same markets’.”
The FT’s Observer column, reviewing the controversy, ventured that Herald readers most disappointed by the canning of the Deng profile might be members of the Murdoch family and company executives, who thirst for information about Ms Deng and how she ended up, through her children, in the billionaire’s family trust.
