Rupert Murdoch’s newest newspaper will likely be more risky and experimental
Publishers around the country should keep an eye on The Wall Street Journal. It may be radically pursuing a new online publishing strategy in the very near future.
After four months of haggling, Rupert Murdoch convinced enough members of the Bancroft family to sell him Dow Jones & Company for $5 billion last night, essentially merging the company with his enormous News Corporation.
No one is sure what Murdoch plans to do with his new prize newspaper, but that doesn’t stop anyone from guessing.
The New York Times published an article today that hypothesizes the many strategies that Murdoch could launch.
One guess is that the executives at News Corporation will offer more free content from The Journal’s website, WSJ.com, in an attempt to increase its audience and advertising inventory.
The Mequoda Group frequently endorses that website strategy. It is essentially trying to make WSJ.com less of a Membership Website and more of an Internet Hub, which is great for selling more advertising.
If this strategy is adopted, WSJ.com will likely keep some content behind a firewall for The Journal’s over 900,000 paid subscribers, the New York Times said.
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The NYTimes article makes other guesses at what will become of The Journal’s editorial strategy and possible synergy with News Corporation’s new Fox business news channel, set to launch in October.
The only thing that seems certain is that The Journal is not going to stay the same.
Murdoch published a letter at Forbes.com in May—just after talks of the acquisition surfaced—that philosophizes about the future of news media. The theme of the letter is mostly “bring on the changes.”
“People’s expectations of media have undergone a revolution,” Murdoch wrote. “The future of media is a future of relentless experimentation and innovation, [and] accelerating change.”
The topic and timing of this letter point to one guarantee for The Journal: change is coming. Just what kind of change? We can only guess, but Murdoch’s letter does allude to some possibilities.
“The vast network of Internet-savvy news junkies want their news with several fresh twists: constantly updated, relevant to their daily lives, complete with commentary and analysis, and presented in a way that allows them to interact not just with the news but with each other about the news.”
Will The Wall Street Journal feature more constant updates and more user generated content? Only time will tell. But stay tuned to WSJ.com’s online publishing strategy for innovative ideas that could help you make more money online.
