New York Times publishes Murdoch investigation

Posted by Martin Stabe on 25 June 2007 at 07:06
Tags: New York Times, Sunday Times, Times, Times Media, Wall Street Journal

The New York Times has this morning published its much-anticipated investigation into News Corp. The story, which Murdoch himself declined to be interviewed for, includes four bylines, including Jane Perlez and Raymond Bonner reporting from London.

The key line in the New York Times investigation, which comes as Murdoch seeks to acquire the rival Wall Street Journal, come in paragraph nine:

What worries his critics is that Mr. Murdoch will use The Journal, which has won many Pulitzer Prizes and has a sterling reputation for accuracy and fairness, as yet another tool to further his myriad financial and political agendas.

The piece explains that the Bancroft family, which controls Dow Jones, has sought assurances of the Wall Street Journal’s continued editorial independence if Murdoch were to become its proprietor, before noting that “When he bought The Times of London in 1981 he gave similar assurances, but some former editors say he meddled with news operations anyway”

The piece pays close attention to News Corp’s governance of The Times, which Murdoch is said to favour replicating at the Wall Street Journal. It quotes former editors Harry Evans, Fred Emery and Andrew Neil to allege Murdoch’s interference with his British broadsheets.

Neil is quoted as saying: “He puts people in who will do his bidding”.

But current Times editor Robert Thompson, who is believed to have a key role in Murdoch’s attempt to acquire Dow Jones, paints a different picture: “I’ve had absolutely no interference and a lot of investment in a loss-making newspaper, for which Rupert Murdoch gets no credit.”

The bulk of the story, however, examines the Murdoch empire’s influence on US politics, and particularly media regulation. In the dozen years since moving the company to America, the New York Times says, Murdoch’s companies have “thrived in a highly regulated environment in part because of his remarkable ability to mold the rules to fit his needs.”

The piece also looks at campaign contributions linked to Murdoch or News Corp, which are more balanced between Republicans and Democrats than might be expected in the United States, where his best-known properties are Fox News and the New York Post.

AOP: The evolving content model

Posted by Martin Stabe on 4 October 2006 at 10:26
Tags: Bebo, Channel 4, Incisive Media, Journalism, Sunday Times, Times, Times Media, UK AOP

The first panel of the day features Ron Henwood, new business director of Channel 4, Times Media digital publisher Zach Leonard, Incisive media chairman Tim Weller and Jim Scheinman of Bebo.

The famously “platform agnostic” Weller praises Incisive Media’s “fantastic” B2B journalists, but says that one challenge is been to wean them off the habit of clinging onto their stories until they appear under a byline in a printed magazine.

Having established printing as quickly as possible in online publications as the norm at Incisive, however, leadto new challenges for reinventing the established print products.

“Print products need to be more discoursive, forward-thinking, and analystical” rather than just printing news, Weller says.

In the  Q&A, the the panel is asked several questions touching on the competition between businesses focusing on horizontal content and those concentrating on narrow vertical niches. One question touches on whether the growth of vertical search engines is a threat to B2B publishers like Weller.

He rejects this, saying that vertical search is an opportunity for Incisive, and one which the company is already exploring in the insurance industry.

But Weller says narrower is generally better, and that his company always hopes to create products that appeal to the most specific community of buyers as possible.

Times Media’s Zach Leonard, however, says that for “horizontal” general interest publications like the Times titles, the correct response it to create many specific vertical channels that allow advertisers to target readers more precisely.

Leonard is also asked whether the Times has any plans for paid content products. He alludes to the Times newspapers’ vast archive, stretching back into the 18th century, which it is looking to use better online.

Basic archives can be used to simply increase traffic, but specific packages of that content could become paid-for content. He mentions that Virginia Woolfe once wrote film reviews for the Times and that this might be something that could be a product to monetize through reader payment.