Vanity Fair: Rupert to Internet: It’s War!

[babylonsister]

Rupert to Internet: It’s War!

Rupert Murdoch is going to battle against the Internet, bent on making readers actually pay for online newspaper journalism–beginning with his London Sunday Times. History suggests he won’t back down; the experts suggest he’s crazy. Is he also ignoring his industry’s biggest problem?

By Michael Wolff
November 2009


War is Rupert Murdoch’s natural state. When he launched the Fox Broadcasting Company, in October 1986, he went to war against the hegemony of CBS, ABC, and NBC. With Fox News he crossed swords with CNN’s Ted Turner. At Sky, his satellite-TV system in the U.K., he went up against the BBC. He’s battled China, the F.C.C., the print unions in Great Britain, and, recently, most of the journalism community in his takeover of The Wall Street Journal. He relishes conflict and doesn’t back down—one reason why he’s won so many of his fights and so profoundly changed the nature of his industry.

Now he’s going to war with the Internet.

It hasn’t been a good year for Murdoch—the largest publisher of newspapers in the worst year in newspaper history. His purchase of The Wall Street Journal is widely seen as one of the worst moves of his career—News Corp. has already taken a $3 billion write-down on the purchase. His beloved New York Post, always a money loser for him, is now suffering such great losses that Murdoch is considering a partnership with or even sale to the Daily News, the Post’s arch-enemy. His once highly profitable newspaper groups in the U.K. and Australia are faltering. News Corp.’s share price has been among the hardest hit of any major media company.

And yet, Murdoch, at 78, would double-down in a heartbeat: he strategizes constantly about how he might buy The New York Times. But first he might have to save the newspaper business itself. As it happens, he, unlike almost everyone else in the business, believes newspapers are suffering not at the hands of technological forces beyond their control but at the hands of proprietors who are weaker than he is.

After fulminating for a year about how people on the Internet should pay for news, he made it official. Announcing in August the biggest losses his company has ever sustained, he added that he’d had enough and if people wanted to read his newspapers they could bloody well pay for them.

more...

http://www.vanityfair.com/business/features/2009/11/michael-wolff-200911

[SpiralHawk]

1. "Bring it on, you Republicon tool." - The Netsters

"Shoot yourself in your chickenhawk republicon foot. Smirk."

- The Netsters

[ixion]

2. indeed

"Do you hear that Mr. Anderson? That is the sound...of inevitability."
-- Agent Smith, from the Matrix.

[nebenaube]

5. No doubt...

I would like to see that man lose everything.

[TheCowsCameHome]

3. Pay to read Rupert's rags? Nah, I don't think so,

[get the red out]

9. I'd pay to avoid them!

I would pay to never have to hear or read another word from any of his "reporters" again.

Sickening creep. If he wants to go broke I wouldn't want anyone to stand in the way of his "freedom" to do so.

[groovedaddy]

4. The old fascist bastard won't get a cent from me! n.t

[Joanne98]

6. Has it ever occurred to him that his newspapers lie about everything and that's WHY

They're losing money. Who want's to pay for BS? If he does this it will FAIL. The newspapers will be replaced with non-profits who believe in reporting the truth for a change.

[peacetalksforall]

7. We should pay one person to read them and report to us on any danger signals

that he is planning more offenses against the people of the world.

[Hugin]

22. That's a good idea.

Revise the LBN to where the cut/paste articles are now paraphrased.

Duty to read could be passed around similar to how the Mod duties are handled now. (With breaks for good behavior)

:thumbsup:

[Vinnie From Indy]

8. Burn baby burn!

Murdoch obviously has a fundamental misconception about the paradigm shift that has been spawned by the Internet. He is a 20th century buggy whip salesman. His attempt to partition off his little kingdom behind a pay wall will almost certainly hasten his demise. The simple truth is that there are too many alternatives to his product and they are available at the click of a mouse. His position is not unlike a man trying to kill all the bees in a huge swarm by stabbing each bee with a cocktail skewer.

It is delightful that he has embarked on this Quixotic adventure.

[ima_sinnic]

10. this particular dinosaur is about to go extinct

-- excellent example of survival of the fittest, where those who can adapt to a changing environment will survive to reproduce. It's end of the line for poor ole rupee. :cry: :nopity:

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

11. A fair number of American newspapers are going to do the same thing

It's like a mass suicide plan.

If a large Internet company were smart (Google?) they would start hiring a gigantic fleet of national and international journalists to start writing original content for Google news or some similar entity. It would be a lot less expensive to fund great journalism without bricks and mortar and paper and ink. I am NOT speaking of commentary, I am talking about actual reporting. I thought Huffington was going to try to do that, but haven't seen much evidence so far.

As this stuff unfolds, it will also be more common for the Murdoch types to track down bloggers and sites that somehow link to their content or summarize it and attempt to sue them - like music downloads.

[Turborama]

17. Al Jazeera English

When I read "hiring a gigantic fleet of national and international journalists to start writing original content for Google news or some similar entity." it made me think of Al Jazeera English. Check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Jazeera_English#Personalities_and_staff">who they've employed and where they are from...

They offer their 24/7 TV broadcast free online, too: http://english.aljazeera.net/watch_now/

I recommend watching it on Livestation: http://www.livestation.com/channels/3

ETA They also upload a lot of their programs to watch online: http://english.aljazeera.net/programmes/

[BadGimp]

12. this wil be a spectacular "Flame Out" - pass the popcorn

[Tutankhamun]

13. I hope Rupert Murdoch has a heart attack and dies today.

It will be a lot harder for him to continue destroying the world if he's dead.

[Ganja Ninja]

14. I surrender Rupert.

You win. Keep your lies and propaganda. I'll get real news from some place where they employ real journalists.

[Best_man23]

15. I would rather pay to spend an entire day reading an eye chart

Than pay to read any of that old bastard's publications. I do self investment and dropped my subscription to Barrons the day Murdoch bought Dow Jones.

[JohnWxy]

16. he's a modern William R. Hearst. Super Schmuck.

[bhikkhu]

18. LOL - good luck Rupert, you're going to need it

It looks like he's about to become an obscure footnote in the history of the 'net. Will anyone miss him?

[scarface2004]

19. newspapers are dead! pay per view internet is dead!

maybe murdoch will go broke, lose his health insurance, and diE!! ha ha ha!!

[Daveparts still]

20. Barry Diller

says the same thing, he even went so far as to call it stealing. If you buy a DVD and let your neighbor borrow it you are stealing their profits.

So if you repost a news story you are a thief, according to Diller. He doesn't count the extra ad revenue the story being repost might generate or new readers to his site. No you are a thief plain and simple in Diller world.

[Flagg]

21. Just drop already, Rupert.

[ThoughtCriminal]

23. Cat Fud!

Pay for Murdoch content? Great Idea Rupert!