Though not confirmed by Dow Jones, it’s fairly clear that Rupert Murdoch has succeeded with his acquisition of Dow Jones and the Wall Street Journal. UK’s The Business reports the deal will be announced next week.
Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp is not buying the WSJ to keep the status quo. You’re going to see the WSJ morph into a new media company with a greater online presence, increased online engagement with readers, WSJ via cable TV, and ultimately online video that you’ll get streamed to your TV/net appliance via RSS or like technology.
Murdoch has been buying and developing Internet assets. Not the least of which include MySpace and the development of Fox Interactive. In a recent interview with Fox News Channel’s Neil Cavuto, Murdoch explained where print journalism is heading.
…I think young people are reading newspapers less or reading it on the Web. We have to adapt ourselves to that, not only to attract readers to the hard copy, but more and more readers to the online and to commercialize that. And the great thing, and the value of financial journalism and high-quality journalism is that you can charge for it.
The WSJ acquisition bodes well for lawyers entering into the online discussion via blogs. The WSJ’s blogs have already provided a great medium for lawyers to gain exposure. Expect greater opportunities ahead.