AdAge: Why News Corp. won't quit search

CEO Rupert Murdoch created a furor last week when he suggested News Corp. would quit Google. The good and bad of such a move, trade publication AdAge says:

The move could make News Corp. websites work more like print -- in a good way. Readers who want news from their favorite source would have to enter through the front door, registering and subscribing along the way. Those readers are worth more to advertisers than the unwashed, anonymous masses shipped in by search.

But it would also make News Corp. sites more like print in the bad way. Readers who don't know about a Wall Street Journal story on their area of interest would become less likely to find out about The Journal's value. Sampling would go through the floor. The link economy would no longer recommend News Corp. sites. Mr. Murdoch's recent grumbling about "fair use" aside -- grumbling quickly followed by an admission of its value -- other sources will take Journal news breaks and expand upon them.

Murdoch: 'No regrets' on Dow Jones purchase

Speaking at The Wall Street Journal's CEO Council, CEO Rupert Murdoch told attendees: “I have no regrets about [purchasing] the Wall Street Journal, even though the accountants made me write it down by about 50%." News Corp. completed its purchase of the WSJ in 2007 before the financial crisis hit in earnest and the stock market tumbled." Watch Murdoch and big New York Times Co. investor Carlos Slim in this video.

WSJ expands New York City local news footprint

The push into metropolitan news would involve about a dozen new positions, The New York Times is reporting today. The move is part of The Wall Street Journal’s "effort to create a New York edition, first reported last summer as a project that was focused mostly on increased arts coverage. The edition could begin early next year,'' says the NYT's Richard Perez-Pena.

He notes the expansion is part of CEO Rupert Murdoch's drive to make the WSJ a more general-interest national newspaper -- a push that's pressuring the other national daily, USA Today.