News Corp. and Dow Jones – What a Deal !!! PART 2

Implications: The deal fascinates me.  Given all of the hoopla about the Internet and even my own views regarding the need for an online strategy, I find the News Corp. acquisition of Dow Jones as a potential battleground on two fronts – print and online.  The deal has the potential to rattle the cages of the print media as well as the Internet-based media.  Hopefully the next stop for News Corp. is a concerted effort to cater to the USA domestic minority market.

Analysis: I am not a newspaper man.  But I do read the printed newspapers, printed magazines, watch cable news, watch broadcast news, and yes occasionally I listen to radio news.  I also read online news as well.  I maintain a subscription to print newspapers as well as the same paper’s online website.  I am the consumer.

However, as a telecom-media-online advertising person, I have seen the print media in a state of transition to my world.  The News Corp. deal has the potential to bring a little life to the print media.  Murdoch may be just what the industry needs today.

The Wall Street Journal will be seeing a rise in readership.  Newspapers like the New York Times and Washington Post will likely see a major drop in readership.  News Corp.’s reputation for being a bit to the right is a welcome change for readers who are basically sick and tired of the more left leaning sermons.  It is all about balance.  Readers are intelligent and want to hear many views. 

Magazines have been struggling for some time.  Weekly magazine have been trying to find a meaning to exist.  News Corp.’s resources will enable it to reach a wide audience and quickly with stories that are more frothy and fun as well as stories that require a deep dive analyses.  Is there a future for magazines; probably not unless they are local and monthly.  Thanks to Fox News, News Corp. has a local look and feel.  At the end of the day all important news is local – it’s just like politics. 

Don’t get me wrong, I believe the Internet has caused a fundamental shift in print media.  However, if Murdoch’s public comments are truly representative of what will happen, we will be seeing some competition on the print media front as well.  News Corp.’s entry into print media will shake up regional and national newspaper chains.  The competition to get readers’ eyeballs will be more intense then ever.

Printed local newspapers enable local businesses to advertise and enable local stories to surface.  You read a national newspaper like USA Today, do you really care about what happens in a town 1000 miles away or are you interested in hearing about a local story in your town?  Most sane people would say that local stories interest them.

My town has two local papers, I read both of them.  I read about the local events and yes about the occasional car accident we have had in town and in my county.  Printed news media has a home in the local and national marketplace. 

With an aging population there are still going to be plenty of us around who grew up reading papers who will buy these printed newspapers.  My children will probably never ever buy a newspaper but I still have a good 40 years left in me and I still have disposable income that media companies want.

What would be interesting for News Corp. is if it makes a significant move into the USA minority arena; specifically the Hispanic and Asian markets.  The Hispanic marketplace is the fastest growing minority demographic in the USA and it has money.  The Asian population though not as fast growing as the Hispanic has an importance to the USA by way of China.

Imagine a newspaper or magazine specifically speaking to the domestic and international Chinese population.  The Chinese population has been entrenched in the United States for close to a century with the development of the first Chinatowns.  The population is unique in that it has been assimilated into US culture without ever really giving up its cultural roots.  After the fall of the Bamboo curtain, many families re-united with family members that were cut off three decades earlier.  Business is flowing between the USA and China.

Business is the key part of the relationship between the USA and China.  Murdoch already possesses an international business unit focused on Asia.  News Corp.’s acquisition of Dow Jones will further News Corp.’s interests. 

The key to media (like telecom today and in the future) today and in the future is synergizing and integrating the product and distribution.

With a mega giant like News Corp. prowling the world of print media and the Internet, what will Internet-based news distribution services do?  The world is in a state of transition, Internet-based news will not suffer but it will need to be on its toes.  Murdoch’s entry into the Internet will force news companies to do a better job a finding and reporting news.  As I said, Murdoch’s Fox News already has a national and local news presences, the Internet will serve as a way for both to reach deeper into the local and national readership base.