Newsonomics: The 2016 Media Year By The Numbers, and A Look Toward 2017

2016 goes down as a memorable year for those in and around the media. Though audience levels have never been higher, the digital transformation burden weighed ever more heavily on news media’s back. Then “the media” saw itself pummeled endlessly in the run-up to the election and even more in ...

Read More

Newsonomics: Seizing The Brexit-Trump Moment, The Murdochs Bid For Sky

No surprise, in this age of rampant private gain over public interest, that Rupert Murdoch has re-emerged. Like a boxer who can be knocked about the ring and to the mat but never knocked out, Murdoch, CEO of 21st Century Fox, now makes a new bid for a company he has long sought to control:... ...

Read More

Newsonomics: Post-Trump, 3 Truths, 4 Long Years, and An Existential Threat

In the mourning after, it’s not just the journalistic post-mortems about polling malpractice that should concern us. It is the very real question of the survival of American journalism as we have known it over the past six decades or more. Donald Trump’s victory leaves a wobbling press in a ...

Read More

House of Murdoch, Sulzberger Shuffle & The Next Gannett: 10 Storylines into 2017

It’s been a remarkable year for the nation, and its press. Transfixed by the Trump phenomenon, election anxiety has all but consumed us. But soon, what has felt like a national colonoscopy will soon be over, and the press will march (or at least step) forward. As we consider the most ...

Read More

Trump, Murdoch, Ailes: A Trifecta of Woe, By The Numbers

They’ve built their business lives on numbers, and this week’s numbers measure the collective, interwoven fates of Donald Trump, Roger Ailes and Rupert Murdoch. Toting up those woes, the trio’s many critics may feel – this week at least – like they’ve won the Schadenfreude Olympics. For two ...

Read More

Fox News, 2017, Post-Election, What Will the Murdochs Do?

Is it too early to move on 2017? While the number 24 – as in 24%, the odds of Donald Trump winning the Presidency according to The New York Times’ Upshot forecasters — sent a chill down the spine of many, it still looks like the likelihood is that Hillary Clinton will move into the... Read More

Newsonomics: As Fox’s Dr. Frankenstein Exits Right, the Murdochs Are Left to Reboot Their Wounded Cable News Leader.

If the ascendance of Donald Trump is showbiz, the descent of Roger Ailes can only be described as opera. Trump and Ailes should go down into history together, and July 21, 2016 will mark it. Just hours before Trump formally accepted the Republican nomination for President, the Dr. Frankenstein ...

Read More

Now on Both Sides of the Atlantic: The Murdochian Candidates

Chaos reigns, both in London and Gotham. In the shadows, the puppet-maker now works around the clock, enticed by events unfolding beyond even his great powers. Undaunted by what might have been an earth-shaking, career-defining scandal and rejuvenated by the prospects for the future by wife #4, ...

Read More

Apollo Seeks Purchase of Tribune — and Possible California Sell-Off

Is Rupert right? Friday afternoon, News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch tweeted the following message: “Strong word Tribune newspaper group to be bought by big Wall St firm, LA Times to go to philanthropist Eli Broad and local group.” He’s talking about a deal that has been brewing for at least a ...

Read More

Newsonomics: Eight Questions (And Answers) About Nikkei’s Surprise Purchase of the Financial Times

Is Nikkei the new Axel Springer of Asia? Is $1.3 billion as ridiculous a price as the $5 billion Rupert Murdoch paid for Dow Jones? How did the turn from Berlin to Tokyo happen in 15 minutes? Will Japanese lessons be the first order of business at One Southwark Bridge beginning next week? ...

Read More