Not content with its conservative media empire, Rupert Murdoch’s NewsCorp is making an ambitious bid to buy the Dow Jones Company and its prized product, the Wall Street Journal. NewsCorp is offering to buy at $60 a share, all cash, 65 percent above Dow Jones’ closing price yesterday (which shot up $18.42 as news of the bid broke). Owning the WSJ, along with Barron’s and Dow Jones Newswires would be a fantastic coup for NewsCorp, which is launching its rah-rah business channel later this year.
The deal has highly troubling implications. Murdoch is known for pushing his publications, such as the once-liberal New York Post, to the right. Under Murdoch’s purview, would the news pages of the Wall Street Journal become more like its conservative editorial section?
Other potential bidders include the Washington Post Co, New York Times Co and Bloomberg LP. All three represent an improvement over the brains behind Fox News.
