Murdoch Will Change the Web -- If He Can Find It

Trying to distract from some disastrous quarterly results, Rupert Murdoch made headlines the other day by announcing that News Corp. would shortly begin to charge for access to its websites and that "the current days of the Internet will soon be over."

This comes on the heels of Murdoch firing the founders and reorganizing MySpace and bringing in Jonathan Miller, the former head of AOL, to run News Corp.'s digital businesses.

Rupert, in other words, is mad as hell about the Internet and is going to do something about it.

I've pointed out before that Murdoch doesn't know where the Internet is--doesn't get email, doesn't use a computer, can't get his cell phone to work. He may, literally, never have opened a web page. News Corp. itself, other than its fluke purchase of MySpace--whose value rose and then, as Facebook surged ahead, crashed--is even more culturally uninterested in digital media than other digitally averse traditional media companies. So when Murdoch has to say something on the issue--when that's what the company thinks Wall Street wants to hear--there's a chicken-without-head scramble in the company to find someone whose been on the Internet to brief him.

Continue reading on newser.com

Comments

[Bozwellian]

Problematic if one looks at what the MURDOCH influence has already been ...the discombobulationing of AVAIALBLE , RELIABLE NEWS...He cashed in on ENTERTAINMENT NEWS supplanted Vital NEWS REPORTING in favor of controling what news was allowed out and about ...Any really trust the WSJ these all that much these days under hs ownership ? Comes off more like a subsidary of FOX more than ever and look at all the other SJPPOSED NEWS outlets...­all geared to the ENTERTAINMENT aspects and so little of vital , factual reportings that DO effect and affect the general populace who with NO access to valid inforation are left in the dust too often !!
They are indeed setting out to control content more, NOT expand it. as their only interests is to profit by reigning over access for $$ profit and "ability to have perceptions" bent to their favor

[larry278]

Murdoch's use of traditional MSM w/o the www is like sending smoke signals on a foggy day.

[macohmz]

How many reps. in Congress are the same way?

[Zen0469]

Keep Murdoch out of the web at all costs.

Don't permit him to contaminate it as he has contaminated the newspaper and broadcast businesses.

[Yamunation]

He can ask John McCain to teach him.

[brklynivn]

Of course he's angry about the internet, he thought Fox would pull what they did in the '90's, but the internet and blogs prevent that. Now he wants to control it, since Fox has become more and more irrelevant. Let's hope he bankrupts himself doing it...

[Isis N]

Murdoch is gonna be SOL when he loses some new income b/c of this...

[ebanks84]

hahahahaha­hahahahaha hehehehehe­hehehehehe­hehe hhhoohohoh­ohohohohoh­oho I find that extremely funny and uplifting. I hope he never finds the internet :)