Murdoch Says Newspapers Must Charge For Online Content
News Corp. chief executive Rupert Murdoch said on Thursday that newspapers must find a way to charge for online content to make up for declining ad revenue.
"People are used to reading everything on the net for free, and that’s going to have to change," Murdoch told attendees at the annual Cable Show event in Washington, D.C.
Murdoch cited The New York Times as an example, saying it has a "very, very good Web site." He said he did not believe the paper would make any money online unless it changes its current business model.
Murdoch May Make Wall Street Journal Free
An online-only subscription to the Wall Street Journal usually costs $99, and around 1 million people have judged that to be a reasonable price. Look for some drastic shifts, though, as Rupert Murdoch intends to lower that first number and increase the second.
MySpace Founders Stick With Murdoch
The term “ridiculously wealthy” may still apply, but MySpace founders Chris DeWolfe and Tom Anderson have renewed their contracts with News Corp., and reports indicate that the pair won’t become quite as rich as they might have wanted.
GE, Microsoft Look To Out-Murdoch News Corp
News Corp.’s bid to buy Dow Jones, and by default, the most influential financial newspaper in the world, the Wall Street Journal, seems to have spooked media rival General Electric into making a bid for the company as well.
Murdoch Would Bolster WSJ’s Digital Presence
The letter has it all – bold print, bullet points, and italics. It’s 1,200 words long. And it’s signed by billionaire Rupert Murdoch. That’s right – Murdoch’s most recent communication regarding a Dow Jones takeover has been published by The Wall Street Journal, a Dow Jones property.
Which may not have been what the billionaire intended. “We are disappointed, as I imagine you are, that the details of our proposal and the discussion of the merits of a potential combination have become a matter of public debate,” he wrote to the Bancroft family (which owns Dow Jones). Yet the letter was unfailingly courteous, and modesty ruled the day.
Murdoch: MySpace The Next Big Portal
Take the News Corp publisher’s vast fortune, add it to the very popular social networking site MySpace, and suddenly Rupert Murdoch is playing Fox to the major portal sites like MSN, Yahoo, and AOL.
Rupert Murdoch Eyes Blinkx
Last week the big news was that Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp was in talks to acquire an established but unnamed entity.
Is Murdoch Foxing His Way Into Search?
The Internet rumor mill is working overtime as forums light up with speculation about Fox Interactive Media’s apparent interest in acquiring a search engine among other portals, especially after News Corp.’s $580 million purchase of Intermix Media, the owner of MySpace.com.
Murdoch Expects To Buy Malone’s News Corp. Stake
As News Corp. reported nearly an 8% drop in quarterly income, CEO Rupert Murdoch said that he expects buy all or part of John Malone’s 18% stake in the company.