Rupert Murdoch, Branding, Perceived Value, and Trailer Park Love

Rupert Murdoch pulled off the Dow Jones/Wall Street Journal deal. Here is what I said about this way back on May 1st.

I am pretty sure that Rupe would like to dominate the universe but this looks more like a ploy to boost perceived value to a sagging industry.

I guess I was wrong. Well, what do you expect? How can you expect me to get inside the head of a bazzilioaire? I live in a trailer park for Christ’s sake. As a matter of fact, as I’m writing this, there is a domestic dispute happening outside my window, complete with two shouting women, a possibly unfaithful boyfriend, and a barking pit-bull tied to a tree.

Whoa!! Screaming woman #1 just drove her car into the tree while trying to run over either the pit-bull or boyfriend. The guy just ran into the trailer, limping noticeably, with woman #2. No bullshit, this is all going down, right now.

Back to Rupert.

Well, hold on, two SUV’s full of cops just showed up. One guy is in plain clothes and un-marked S.U.V., looks like a detective. That makes me wonder if woman #1(who made a hasty retreat after smacking the tree) called the police. If woman #2 or limping guy called, why a detective?

Wow! 3 more police cars and two of them are from the Sheriff’s office. All of the police are inside the house except for one guy. That’s why I think the scorned woman #1 made the call. I think she may have tipped the cops off about some drugs.

Hold on, I’m gonna’ step outside, take a look-see.

I went outside and the sheriff just smiled and waved. I walked over to see if my neighbor John knew anything. He knows the people involved. Anyway, when I walked back outside, the cops were all gone and the car that screaming woman #1 drove off in, is now parked in the yard with the front bumper hanging.

Somebody ought to tell Jerry Springer about this place. When I came home this afternoon, a county agent was putting up “stop construction” notices and he told me that all of these trailers were moved in here without permits.

Where were we? Oh yeah, I referring to this statement I made about Rupert Murdoch.

I am pretty sure that Rupe would like to dominate the universe but this looks more like a ploy to boost perceived value to a sagging industry.

I was wrong in thinking that Murdoch did not really intend to buy Dow Jones. Obviously, he was serious about the deal. I may even be somewhat off the mark in saying that it is ploy to boost perceived value to a sagging industry but not far off the mark.

Dow Jones and the Wall Street Journal are respected brand names and that is why Murdoch desires them. I think that he will use some combination of Dow Jones and/or WSJ in conjunction with a financial news cable network. I can also see the possibility of a straight news channel or investigative journalism channel bearing the Wall Street Journal name.

When I used the term “sagging industry”, I was referring to print journalism. As soon as news of Rupert’s bid became public knowledge Dow Jones’ stock value jumped and Murdoch’s News Corp. moved up as well. That is what I mean by “perceived” value. Nothing about those companies changed over night but the perception of them did.

Here is a quote from the TimesOnline (which is also owned by Murdoch) that has Murdoch hinting at possible change at the Wall Street Journal.

“What if, at the Journal, we spent $100 million a year hiring all the best business journalists in the world?” he asked. “Say 200 of them. And spent some money on establishing the brand but went global — a great, great newspaper with big, iconic names, outstanding writers, reporters, experts. And then you make it free, online only. No printing plants, no paper, no trucks. How long would it take for the advertising to come? It would be successful, it would work and you’d make … a little bit of money. Then again, the Journal and The Times make very little money now.”

Once again, this is all about capitalizing on a brand name.

If Murdoch changes the format of the Journal to being a entirely web-based entity and it becomes ad revenue driven rather than subscriber driven it will become one more entertainment commodity packaged as a news commodity. Subscribers want information; advertisers are looking for numbers. That is oversimplifying things because advertisers are going to look at demographic variables as well. Murdoch will want to increase the numbers though, and the proven way to do that is sensationalism. Therefore, the quality will suffer. The brand names, however, would become more valuable because we are talking about perceived value. That’s what stock value is. It’s like real estate; it’s monetary value is what someone will pay for it today.

So, in all of this talk about branding and perception, the big question is; does quality matter? Yes, in the end game, quality does matter.

The flaw in Murdoch’s plan is getting “big, iconic names, outstanding writers, reporters, experts” to play along. In other words, as with any web based entity, he needs quality content. At some point, these big iconic names (content generators) do not need Murdoch.

As we progress into the era of content on demand and citizen journalism, quality will matter. As the public has more choices at the push of a button the nature of a brand name and it’s value changes.

That doesn’t alter the fact that a great deal of the public have an unending Jones for sensationalism. The problem that the huge news/entertainment conglomerates face is that there will be a leveling of the playing field in the arena of the sensational.

In other words, when there truly is content on demand, when I can sit in front of my 96-inch, retractable, flat screen, high def, T.V. and access high speed internet; whether I am seeking wild naked co-eds or straight journalism my choices are infinite. How far away is that day? That, I can’t answer; I live in a trailer park. Keep an eye on Mark Cuban’s blog for that answer.

So, we have Rupert Murdoch himself intimating that the newspaper business will evolve into an internet business. The newspaper business is really at the core of his media empire. At, least that’s where it all started. The handwriting is on the wall that the T.V. business is headed in the same direction. Murdoch’s empire, at some point, is nothing more than a collection of brand names with perceived value. If the quality of content is not there, at that point, what is the value?

The view through that light makes the empire look like a house of cards.