Solidifying control with the forced resignation today of The Wall Street Journal's top editor, News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch can now quickly reshape it as more of a general interest national paper -- pressuring USA Today and The New York Times anew. At a January meeting of bureau chiefs, the WSJ says in a new story on the newsroom shake-up, Murdoch said he wanted the paper to be "more attractive,'' and stories to be told in "as few words as possible.'" He wanted "'facts first -- news and analysis.' He wanted more stories that begin and end on section fronts, complaining of gray 'jump pages' -- the inside pages on which longer articles are continued."[Image: this morning's USA Today, Newseum]
I like Murdoch. He gets stuff done. He's doesn't just talk, he makes things happen. Consumers HATE, LOATHE, DETEST, and DESPISE jump pages. We design and layout newspapers the way 'we' want to them to be - not the way consumers want them. We still do it because some editor says - "Well that's the way we've always done it." And another thing - Why can't we print page of the newspaper in color? USA TODAY should have figured this out years ago. The technology is there to do it, right? Will companies invest the resources to make it happen? I bet Murdoch would. Working with people in the newspaper industry reminds me of the recent IBM commercials where everyone's "talking" about innovation...and IBM says, "Start Doing!" I would not be surprised if WSJ circ matches and passes NYT and USATODAY within 3 years.
ReplyDeleteThis is so wrong in so many ways. All news for NY will be coming from right wing neo con newspapers?
ReplyDeleteSay good bye to Jeff Webber and the rest of the USA Today executives who live in that ivory tower. Paulson, Moon, Wilson...all of them should go! They can take the Gannett CEO Martore with them too!
ReplyDeleteI just wonder abut the mental state of Rupert Murdoch. does he have what Ronald Reagan had. Or someone is ether mascaraing as RM, or a hacker, is making major decisions, pretending to be RM. I came not trust the WSJ editorial content anymore>
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