IT’S OVER: RUPERT MURDOCH’S NEWS CORP OWNS DOW JONES
December 15th 2007 02:06
News Corporation's takeover of Dow Jones cleared its final hurdle as Dow Jones shareholders approved the plan with a 60 percent majority, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Really, the only question at the start of the shareholder meeting had been the size of the majority for the acquisition, and so it’s officially history, with Rupert Murdoch already starting to reshape management at The Wall Street Journal with his hand-picked tried and true chosen few.
After the vote Rupert Murdoch, standing on a makeshift stage made out of four boxes of copying paper at Dow Jones's head office, reassured journalists about the company's future.
News Corporation also embarked on an international advertising blitz to coincide with the Dow Jones vote, buying advertisements for the Friday editions of many rival newspapers around the world, including the New York Times, Washington Post and Los Angeles Times in the US and the Daily Telegraph and Guardian in Britain.
But the three-page advertisement, ‘Free people, Free markets, Free thinking’ was not accepted by the Financial Times.
The newspaper objected to one sentence in the ad, which stated, "Today the greatest brand in journalism joins up with the world's most restless global media company."
Murdoch declined to alter the ad and told Fox News, "I think they're being a little over-sensitive. If I were them, I'd have taken the money."
The China Daily newspaper also declined to run the advertisement, according to Fortune.
Fortune said, “China Daily’s objections, according to News Corp insiders, were more comprehensive, including, not surprisingly, the liberal use of the word ‘free’ in the headline. Under advertising laws in Communist China, use of such words as ‘first’ or ‘best’ must be approved by authorities.
- From MediaBlab
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