The Catalyst Code

While the Bancrofts meet to discuss the bid this week, I have to wonder why Rupert Murdoch wants the Wall Street Journal.

Some have claimed that he wants to turn it into a tabloid — either for the sheer joy of doing so or perhaps because he believes that business scandals would attract more readers if handled in a more flamboyant, less responsible fashion. Others have responded that the Journal has value precisely because it isn’t a tabloid: it is valued by its up-market readers because its reporting of business and financial news is careful, balanced, and reliable. (Its editorial page may be another matter, depending on your politics.)

It is hard to be a careful, balanced, and reliable tabloid, with sensational headlines in large type, cleavage in every issue, and lots of gossip. So where does the Journal’s apparent value to Murdoch come from?

One plausible source has generally been overlooked. The Wall Street Journal is one of the very few print publications that has been able to create an online version that is supported by subscriptions as well as by advertising. Print newspapers everywhere, including those owned by Murdoch, are spiraling slowly towards death, as declining readership and online advertising alternatives drive away advertisers, and declining advertising revenue forces editorial cutbacks that drive away readers, which in turn drives away more advertisers and so on.

Perhaps Murdoch wants the Journal to learn how to develop online strategies to save his other newspapers from this death spiral.