Shakeup

But bent on dominating markets, Murdoch is almost certain to control the WSJ brand and stories prepared by the newspaper in a way that benefits his obvious goal of conquering the business of financial journalism. It's almost certain, for instance, that he would negotiate an end to Dow Jones's years-long arrangement with CNBC, under which the network has exclusive access to Journal reporters and materials, since Murdoch has plans to launch a rival network by the end of the year.

Another issue to be grappled with, if and when Murdoch gets the Journal: which of News Corp.'s many news outlets will get a story first? Let's say one of the Journal's reporters gets a scoop on the next CEO of a Fortune 500 company. Murdoch could order that the story break simultaneously on the new Fox Business News Channel,FoxBusiness.com (or whatever the eventual name is) and WSJ.com. Given the sweep of Murdoch's empire, the potential iterations are impressive: if he decides he wants a half-hour WSJ report on BskyB in the U.K., he could order it up in the blink of an eye, and relocate the WSJ journalist to make it happen just as quickly. And when journalists phone him for an interview about the development, guess which outlet he'll be talking to first? The Rupert Murdoch Wall Street Journal, of course.

© 2007