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Eric Conrad Monday, July 2, 2007

How about paying millions of dollars for a baseball team to an owner who tells you which six players you cannot trade -- and that the manager must stay, too?

No, you probably wouldn't do something like that. And neither will Rupert Murdoch.

Last week, lawyers for Murdoch and the Bancroft family, who controls Dow Jones & Co., put the finishing touches on a tentative deal estimated at $5 billion.

If it is finalized, Murdoch would add some of the most venerable and respected "brands" in American Journalism -- led by The Wall Street Journal -- to his News Corp. media empire, which already includes Fox Television, 20th Century Fox, DirecTV, the New York Post and the Times of London.

But there's been a sticking point. Turns out some of the Bancrofts don't seem to like Murdoch's style of journalism. There is consternation that Murdoch will meddle in the Journal's editorial processes, perhaps skew them politically and threaten top editors and other executives at the Journal and elsewhere.

The word late last week was that Murdoch agreed in principle to some guidelines that will keep the Australian-born megamillionaire at arm's length from his new newsrooms.

Here's a prediction: In three years or less, it'll be moot.

There is more than one way to exercise control over an organization, and no legal document can keep Murdoch and his executives from changing the culture at Dow Jones, from merging the Journal, Market Watch and other Dow Jones' entities into Fox News Channel and Murdoch's myriad other holdings.

Many analysts say that's exactly why Murdoch is so interested in Dow Jones: He sees those pre-eminent business publications, Internet and television outlets as exactly what he needs to keep expanding News Corp.'s influence and advertiser appeal.

So, even if Murdoch agrees not to meddle in daily news operations, and even if he agrees to keep top editors and executives on board, he can change so many larger things that every Dow Jones employee, from the top on down, will feel a profound difference.

Will they like Murdoch's changes? Maybe. Will they stick around or be kept on if they don't like where the new company is heading? Probably not.

Before I go on, here's some disclosure: I was a Dow Jones employee for eight months last year, as editor at The News-Times, a daily newspaper in Danbury, Conn. When I took that job, The News-Times was one of 13 community newspapers owned by Dow Jones' respected Ottaway Newspapers division.

Last summer, Dow Jones executives ordered that six of the 13 Ottaway papers be sold so they could buy an Internet research firm. The newspapers' eventual buyer was Community Newspaper Holdings Inc., of Alabama.

The deal drew about 1 percent of the attention that Murdoch's bid for Dow Jones is getting now, but it affected thousands of employees nonetheless. CNHI turned around and sold the Danbury paper and one other to Dean Singleton's MediaNews group a few months ago.

Ours is a crazy industry these days. My family I were fortunate to return to Maine, the Seattle Times Co. and to the Blethen family, which controls it.

The Blethens own six daily newspapers -- a drop in the bucket compared to Murdoch or Dow Jones -- and their roots are in Maine. Alden Blethen, founder of the Seattle Times, is from central Maine. He practiced law in Portland before heading west and getting into newspapers in the late 19th century.

Back to Murdoch, it's hard to figure who the villains are in this saga or if any really exist.

Many journalists dislike and even fear the way News Corp. practices journalism, though its financial and market-share successes are beyond question.

Dow Jones executives are bottom-liners, too. They buy and sell newspapers, Internet companies and television outlets just like News Corp. does. The Journal's editorial pages are viewed by some Democrats with almost as much disdain as Fox News, so it's not clear how much difference Murdoch will make -- or cares to make -- in Dow Jones' political leanings.

But here's one thing that's for sure: When you pay $5 billion for something, you expect to make whatever changes you deem necessary.

Rupert Murdoch will.

Eric Conrad is executive editor of the Kennebec Journal and the Morning Sentinel. He can be reached at econrad@centralmaine.com.

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