Friday, July 8, 2011

The sick Murdoch Empire

The Murdoch affair is absolutely schoking from an ethical point of view and reveals a high level of corruption in the British police and political establishment. However, there is another aspect of this sordid story, it is the impact on the organization and future of the Murdoch Empire. The closing of the News of the World will cost very little to its owners. According to the New York Times, the annual revenue of this weekly is one billon dollars as compared to 9 billion dollars collected by BskyB. Moreover, it is a well known fact that the Murdoch family does not believe any more in the future of the press. When Rupert decided to pay 5 billion dollars for the Wall Street Journal, his sons disaproved the deal but could not oppose it.


It is very likely that the new developments of this affaire that will lead to the indictment of several members of Murdoch staff ,will weaken the position of the partisans of the press as opposed to the very profitable television and movie branches of the group. The family of the patriarch will probably put more pressure on him to get rid of these unpleasant dailies that carry a lot of trouble and very little profit. The big question is: will Murdoch clean his group before he leaves or will he try to keep things going against the wish of his whole family?