Murdoch takes Wall Street out of the Wall Street Journal

22 04 2008

Murdoch takes Wall Street out of the Wall Street Journal

Posted by: in Marketing and Advertising

Filed under: Management, Marketing and advertising, New York Times’A’ (NYT), News Corp’B’ (NWS)

The New York Times reports that Marcus Brauchli, managing editor of News Corp’.s (NYSE: NWS) Wall Street Journal is leaving his post. It does not appear to know whether he resigned or was fired. But a quick look at this morning’s Journal tells me that Murdoch is determined to take business news out of the Journal and cover politics.

This morning’s Journal doesn’t have a single business story on the front page of its first section. The one business-like story, about Saudi Arabian oil supplies, is a thinly veiled defense of record high oil prices.

Increasingly since Murdoch took over, the Journal has featured stories on domestic and international politics on its first section. And it seems to have cut back on the kind of in-depth analysis of business stories or identification of new business trends that made the Journal a must-read for me.

Murdoch is now trying to take market share from the Times, which reports that Brauchli had been frustrated with some changes and seemed not to have the control over the newspaper that he was promised. It looks to me like Murdoch is trying to turn the Journal into the print version of Fox News. So when renewal time comes up next year, there’s a good chance I’ll be among those who cancel my subscription.

And if the Times is smart, it will hire the ideal of the disaffected Journal editors and reporters to take up the slack in business coverage that Murdoch is leaving — perhaps starting with Brauchli.

Peter Cohan is President of Peter S. Cohan & Associates. He also instructs management at Babson College and edits The Cohan Letter. He has no financial interest in the securities mentioned.