Posted on 05/01/2007 2:19:46 PM PDT by abb
BOSTON, May 1 (Reuters) - Rupert Murdoch's estimated $5 billion bid for Dow Jones & Co. Inc. , which comes as the Australian media mogul is gearing up to launch a new cable business news channel, could pose a new threat to General Electric Co.'s CNBC business channel, industry analysts said.
News Corp. on Tuesday offered $60 a share for Dow Jones, publisher of the Wall Street Journal, driving its shares up 55 percent, to $56.20 on the New York Stock Exchange.
"It certainly is going to be extraordinarily competitive, and I would guess that people at CNBC, and NBC generally, will have to look very, very hard at how they are going to meet the competition," said Mike Ludlum, associate professor of journalism at New York University.
"Murdoch has been thinking about this for a long time, this has been something that has been juggling around in his mind. Now he says, 'OK, let's go,' and he can reach into his back pocket and pull out his wallet," Ludlum said. "And I suspect that Rupert Murdoch, with his background, is going to throw a lot of other resources into it."
Murdoch's Fox Business Channel would be a third competitor in a space that has been split by just two players, CNBC and Bloomberg Television, since 2004, when Time Warner Inc. shut its CNNfn business news channel.
Bloomberg is privately held.
"To cut it up any more looks to me like it's going to be quite a contest," Ludlum said.
Dow Jones provides news to CNBC under a contract due to expire in 2012. A CNBC spokesman declined to comment on what any changes to that contract would mean for the channel.
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(Excerpt) Read more at yahoo.reuters.com ...
Ping
CNBC sucks ass.
Fox Business Channel with LIVE QUOTES and WSJ content.
The shrieking was only surpassed by the rise in Dow Jones stock today.
OH MAN that be awsome
I wonder if Ron Insana will move to Fox Business.
You forgot the trademark ™....Dinosaur Media™ Death Watch.
John Gibson told us Neil Cavuto was a News Corp VP?
Did I hear that right?
Here is the index of todays messages on a Raging Bull message board called CNBCHYPE......it has been there forever, and it began (and continues to be) a board about the shenanigans of CNBC and its hype......but allows other subjects to be discussed, too.....mostly stockplayers post there, but they are libs and conservatives, too :) Of course they’re talking about Rupert today.....most of them HATE CNBC
http://ragingbull.quote.com/mboard/boards.cgi?board=CNBCHYPE
Hmmm!
One wonders if Neil Cavuto may have a future in what is about to unfold
That is correct. Cavuto is VP of Business News. I would suppose he would have the inside track on running the new Fox Business Channel, but I don't know that.
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/070501/dow_jones_journalists.html?.v=2
Murdoch Offer Stuns Journal Newsroom
Tuesday May 1, 6:55 pm ET
By Seth Sutel, AP Business Writer
Dow Jones Staff Abuzz With News of Offer From Rupert Murdoch to Buy the Company
NEW YORK (AP) — As head of the bargaining committee at Dow Jones & Co.’s union, longtime Wall Street Journal reporter E.S. “Jim” Browning has been focusing on health care costs and other contract issues. But news that Rupert Murdoch wants to buy the company was all he and many of his colleagues could talk about Tuesday.
While Murdoch’s proposal faces rough going since Dow Jones’ controlling shareholders said they would vote against it, that didn’t stop talk of potential ownership by Murdoch’s global media conglomerate News Corp. — which includes Fox News Channel, the Fox broadcast network and MySpace — from gripping the Journal’s newsroom.
Browning, who has worked at the paper for 28 years and served as a correspondent in Europe and Asia, said groups of reporters could be seen gathering together to talk about the offer and huddling around televisions to soak up every news update they could.
“That’s all people are talking about today,” Browning said. “What people are saying about it is that it’s a really bad idea.”
“The No. 1 topic of conversation is no longer the contract,” Browning said. “It’s the independence of the company.” Ownership by News Corp., he said, “would be a real threat to the institution, and it would be hard to imagine that it would survive intact if it were sold off to a media empire.”
In an interview with Neil Cavuto on Fox News Channel, Murdoch said he hoped the controlling Bancroft family would consider the offer and that his company would be fine stewards of the newspaper. He said the Journal could do more to increase its circulation and presence online as part of a larger media company.
The Bancrofts have been resistant to selling Dow Jones and can block any attempt to take it over since they control the shareholder vote. Dow Jones said late Tuesday that the Bancrofts would vote shares representing just over 50 percent of the company’s voting power against the deal.
Dow Jones has long prided itself on its independence. While its editorial page’s politically conservative outlook may be in alignment with Murdoch’s own views, many at the company oppose the idea of being subsumed into a large media conglomerate.
The union at Dow Jones, the Independent Association of Publishers’ Employees, officially lashed out at Murdoch’s proposal Tuesday, saying it was opposed by Dow Jones staff “from top to bottom.”
Murdoch’s News Corp. started out in newspapers but now has major interests in television and entertainment. The company still owns many newspapers in Australia and in England, where it owns both the racy tabloid The Sun as well as The Times, which is far more upscale.
Despite his ownership of many mainstream newspapers, Murdoch is often associated with the sensationalism of his tabloids, such as The Sun, which publishes pictures of topless women on its third page, or the New York Post, which has never lived down its timeless headline of “Headless Body in Topless Bar.”
James Brady, who founded the New York Post’s hugely popular and influential gossip column, Page Six, said in an interview with The Associated Press that if Murdoch were to win control of Dow Jones, he would make his mark known, but not overly so.
“He’s an intelligent man — He knows the value and power of The Wall Street Journal,” said Brady, reached at his home in East Hampton, N.Y., where he is finishing a new book. “You won’t see Page Three girls or Page Six in the Journal, but he’s not going to buy a property and let other people run it.”
AP Business Writer Jeremy Herron contributed to this report.
ditto all that and anyone and I mean anyone wooohooing a dot . com.......shoot em
Neil is great and works at least 6 days for his money but my estimation juse got raised a few notches.
woohoo.com!
bang
If NBC had any smarts at all, they’d come to terms with Rupert and sell him CNBC. At least that way they could get some money out of it. The other way, Fox Biz news puts them out of commission and NBC gets bupkis.
I will not watch it if it is just ownership change.Sweep the maggots out,and hire Joe Kernan for whatever he wants plus 10%
Did you see Larry’s show today?
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