Cable Show 2009: Murdoch: Market Troubles Could Last 3 Years [Multichannel News]
Yesterday afternoon's general session at the Cable Show featured News Corp chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch, keynoting and participating in a panel that included Jeffrey Bewkes (Time Warner, Inc.), Philippe Dauman (Viacom, Inc.), Michael Fries (Liberty Global, Inc.), Fox News and Fox Business Network's Neil Cavuto as moderator.
Murdoch commented on the current state of the global economy, predicting that "we're not going back to the old levels in any hurry at all," and indicating that he believes that the economy will recover by the end of next year. Despite the economic conditions, Murdoch told the audience that Fox's overall advertising revenues are up.
And if you're looking to get free articles from The Wall Street Journal anytime soon, Murdoch quickly dispelled that notion regarding one of News Corp's latest acquisitions. The "disruptive" technology of the world wide web has caused consumers to expect online content for free, but News Corp plans to keep the Journal's online content a subscription-based product. Since an online ad supported model doesn't perform as well as the Journal's current model, there's not any impetus to change to free, ad-supported content.
In the current environment where some major newspapers are going out of business or heavily reducing staffing levels and going to an online-only format, it makes me wonder whether other major newspapers will pick up the subscription-based model for their online content, rather than making it available to everyone for free.
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