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thebusinessonline.com
Did Murdoch buy Dow Jones? Yes, says The Business. Not so fast, says Dow Jones. |
Yesterday London's
The Business reported that "Rupert Murdoch has succeeded with his $5 billion bid for Dow Jones, owners of the Wall Street Journal, according to sources acting for the Dow Jones board."
As Poynter Online's Jim Romenesko reported yesterday, Dow Jones issued a quick but brief denial of this. Forbes.com offered some context on this denial.
Whether this deal is done yet, it's worth considering what such a deal might mean to the Wall Street Journal, and what ripples it could cause throughout the news industry.
Yesterday, PodTech Network founder John Furrier (who apparently believes The Business' report of the deal is credible, since he hasn't yet noted Dow Jones' denial) blogged: "I expect to see a mass exodus of professionals hitting the Web as their own businesses. [WSJ tech columnists] Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher are already doing it with All Things D and the D Conference.
"This is the new media model -- a direct business model for professional producers. News Corp will be an online powerhouse overnight if they do it right. ...We will see a massive infusion of credible journalists taking up blogging and video."
Regardless of the Murdoch deal, I agree with Furrier that we're about to start seeing a sharp increase in independent online entrepreneurialism among traditional journalists -- especially those with the foresight to develop reputations as "name brands" that go beyond the byline.
The business of news is changing in ways that reduce traditional newsroom career opportunities, while opening more options for journalists who are willing and able to do more than simply report for someone else's venue. I suspect we'll start seeing some major news brands morph into alliances between scaled-back in-house newsrooms and independent, online-focused news and content operations - including more hyperlocal and niche news.
On that front, I think it would be great if journalism resources like Poynter began offering more training and guidance on entrepreneurial journalism. It's not just like starting any other business.
...Of course, time will tell. What do you think? Please comment below.
Launching a new journalistic enterprise is actually the easy part....
