Murdoch to ruin WSJ?
Aug. 1st, 2007 12:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
malenkiyscotThe Murdoch Journal Watch
By Jack Shafer
In Slate
Today's Wall Street Journal moves financial markets with its news accounts because readers believe — rightly — that the paper serves no master but the reader. Even the slightest tinkering by Murdoch will shatter the trust relationship the paper has with its readers, who are a thousand times more discerning and a thousand times less forgiving than the tabloid readers and viewers Murdoch has made his money on. Will readers be able to trust the Murdoch Journal's coverage of television? Of cable? Of publishing? Of China? Of the Internet? Of any place Murdoch holds a business interest?
...
Will he have permanently crippled it? I suspect so. It takes decades for a newspaper to establish its good reputation. Murdoch will show the world how little time it takes to trash it.
By Jack Shafer
In Slate
Today's Wall Street Journal moves financial markets with its news accounts because readers believe — rightly — that the paper serves no master but the reader. Even the slightest tinkering by Murdoch will shatter the trust relationship the paper has with its readers, who are a thousand times more discerning and a thousand times less forgiving than the tabloid readers and viewers Murdoch has made his money on. Will readers be able to trust the Murdoch Journal's coverage of television? Of cable? Of publishing? Of China? Of the Internet? Of any place Murdoch holds a business interest?
...
Will he have permanently crippled it? I suspect so. It takes decades for a newspaper to establish its good reputation. Murdoch will show the world how little time it takes to trash it.
