Saturday 16 July 2011

Murdoch's revenge

There are some people, the owner of this blog for example, who are immensely enjoying the complete implosion and total disintegration of Rupert Murdoch's Empire.
It is true that Murdoch aimed his UK newspapers titles at the lowest common denominator but there must be a market for them because the News of the World and the Sun were Britain's best selling newspapers. I'm not convinced it was because they were right wing newspapers, it was because they were just easy to read if in a somewhat basic format. What you would not get from a Murdoch newspaper is any in depth analysis of current affairs and that appealed to millions because the titles sold in their millions. The 'proper' newspapers like the Guardian, Independent and even the Murdoch owned Times are all among the bottom few in any circulation table and all 3 of those newspapers only sold a third of the Sun's daily figures.
So as a businessman, Murdoch obviously got things spot on even if his methods were not as the recent furor has shown.
Now it has moved onto America where his empire is heading the same way as it has in the UK with news that his reporters may have been hacking the mobile phones of 9/11 victim families and bribing police officers.
If the accusations are found to be true, News Corporation will very well collapse and take Fox News with it which would not be a bad thing, it's almost a comedy show, but it isn't going to go quietly and that's where i think the real fireworks will be.
However this plays out, if there is a News Corporation at the end of it or not, Murdoch is going to unleash a whirlwind of revenge on the people who are sticking the boot in while he is down.
He knows where the bodies are and if he goes down, he will take some major figures with him so the only option is to make sure he is killed metaphorically before he gets his retaliation in.
Anyway, something else will slither into its place because the market for mindless pap and trash-culture is demand led, and the demand seems pretty big although what i am really hoping for is the collapse of Sky and its Sport Channels so we can have the football, boxing and cricket back on terrestrial television without having to pay through the nose for it.

2 comments:

Cheezy said...

"I'm not convinced it was because they were right wing newspapers, it was because they were just easy to read if in a somewhat basic format."

I think it's a bit of both. The Mirror, for example, is just as easy-to-read as any other paper I can think of. It's basically The Sun minus (most of) the reactionary xenophobia & a 'little Englander' fear of change/foreign cultures/liberalism...

As a result, it sells considerably fewer copies.

Scare-stories and pandering to the fearful also explains the mass popularity of The Daily Mail. Papers with more a measured editorial stance (e.g. Independent, Times, Telegraph, Guardian) don't sell nearly as well.

I share your wish for more free sport on telly but I can't see it happening unfortunately. Even if Murdoch's broadcast empire turns to custard (which is doubtful enough), someone else is bound to step into the breech. It's a generally reliable law of capitalism that where there's money to be made, there'll be someone stepping up to make it.

Falling on a bruise said...

I fear you are right about the sport, that genie has left the bottle.