Murdoch's ultimatum to Amazon: Give us Kindle subscriber names or else
Filed under: Company News, Earnings, Media
Rupert Murdoch's mad as hell, and he's not going to take it anymore. High-handed treatment from Amazon, that is. On News Corp.'s (NWS) fiscal-year-end earnings call with analysts, the notoriously shoot-from-the-hip mogul suggested that The Wall Street Journal will cease to be available on the Kindle e-reader unless Amazon starts offering a more generous revenue split and more publisher-friendly policies.
Jeff Bezos, consider yourself warned.
On the call, News Corp. announced adjusted full-year operating income of $3.6 billion, a 32 percent year-over-year decline largely attributable to the advertising recession afflicting print and broadcast television. Much of the call was devoted to News Corp.'s intensive drive to get consumers to pay directly for digital content of all kinds. Murdoch revealed that the company plans to introduce pay models for all its news websites by the end of the next fiscal year. Moreover, he said that it won't be only the newspaper sites that adopt this change; foxnews.com, he said, will also start charging for content. "It has a huge and loyal and profitable [web] audience already," he said.
"As I've said before, the traditional business model has to change rapidly to ensure that our journalistic businesses can return to their old margins of profitability," Murdoch said. "Quality journalism is not cheap, and an industry that gives away its content is simply cannibalizing its ability to produce good reporting."
Other highlights from the call:
-Murdoch on this year's television advertising: "We're doing well, or we think we're doing well, on the pricing, but we'll probably keep more back for the spot market than last year....There's money around. I'm not saying there's a vast recovery or anything like that, but we are in the process of reaching understandings with a lot of advertisers."
-On whether News Corp. will develop its own e-reader to compete with the Kindle: "We're not in the hardware business."
-On rumors that Guardian Media Group may close the Observer: "I did read that document that went to the staff of the Guardian that swore allegiance everlastingly to the Guardian but said nothing about the Observer. I think I made the same conclusions as everybody."
-On whether News Corp. would buy the Observer: "Hell no. Why?"
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
8-05-2009 @ 9:40PM
BigSteve said...
You know what Murdoch is going to do with them? Give them to the Arabs who loaned him all the money to keep from going bankrupt.
Or worse.
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8-06-2009 @ 1:12AM
dave said...
Murdock can go to Hell. They are Amazon's subscribers-not his. Let him charge. I for one will not pay him a dime for his on line crap or for Fox anything.
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8-06-2009 @ 12:03PM
Wynn said...
Here, Here Dave. Murdock should be shoved down the same rat hole Rush L. lives in.
8-06-2009 @ 1:36AM
doinAZ said...
Jeff Bezos hold your ground.......I am YOUR subscriber and don't want one bit of my info passed on to this greedy b@$$t@rd. Let him pull the wsj from kindle......so what. Since when do we have to pay for content? Just cause you can't sell ad space these days Murdoch? Hellooooo....we're in a recession, suck it up like the rest of us.
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8-06-2009 @ 2:06AM
Aredee said...
I agree with dave (# 5). Nothing that Murdoch has to offer online is worth my hard-earned money, and that goes for his Times and News of The Weird, too.
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8-06-2009 @ 3:27AM
Henry said...
-On whether Kindle subscribers would buy the WSJ: "Hell no. Why?"
WGACA Rupert.
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8-06-2009 @ 4:28AM
spikednc said...
This guy is a huge problem in this country. since bush dismanteled the FCC rules this guy has bought half or more of all media in this country. Did you ever wonder why, even after we have a new president who is trying to undo all of the damage done to us in the last 8 years, we are still listening to this horrible sound from the repulicans? I did. Then I realized that they own the media. The FCC rules USED to keep any party from owning more than one newspaper, radio station and tv station in any given market. bush trashed that law so the republicans could control the media. That's why ABC radio, for one, is solidly right wing garbage save one program which I wonder about some nights. Ever wonder why all you hear on the network news or any news is about all the murders, accidents, death, murder and mayhem, why you have to listen in on wailing., suffering moms who jus lost a child? Because the rules were dismissed and now it's a free for all for dollars. There is very little class or professionalism left. It's a bunch of schlocky morons like murdoch who are running the bland music stations, the newspapers (into the ground) and the tv. He even bought The Wall Street Journal! This slime bucket!
It would be a good idea to start bombarding Obama with emails, telling him he needs to restore the FCC rules so we can get rid of all of this trash. http://www.whitehouse.gov/CONTACT/
Send murdoch back to Australia. send fat rush limbo with him as well as hannity, that whiny mark levine, all of those scumbags.
They have absolutely no interest in seeing this country or Obama succeed. They've said so in their press. We need to get rid of this plague. They are infiltrating everyone's minds and lives because we can't get away from them. Sort of like maggots.
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8-06-2009 @ 12:34PM
James said...
Those rules have been gone for a long time...it started back in the Regan era, and it's not likely to change because BOTH parties have invested too much into owning the media.
What Amazon should do is discontinue accepting orders for WSJ and just let the present ones run out...see what this nitwit does when it's pointed out that they don't HAVE to provide his paper.
8-07-2009 @ 8:11AM
n9iui said...
You honestly think the conservative side "owns" the mainstream media?! And you think Bush is to blame for all your problems? I don't even know where to start, so I won't. I hope, eventually, you will come to your senses.
8-07-2009 @ 5:23PM
Alex said...
You're nearly there but it's not just the Republicans.
Go have a look for 'Manfacturing Consent' and 'Noam Chomsky'
8-12-2009 @ 11:32PM
Dave D said...
One correction for future readers. Deregulation of the airwaves was occuring with Clinton. Political party has nothing to do with with it. I'd be careful linking yourself to any one party since they both are acting and have acted the same way. Obama is no different then Bush, Bush no different then Clinton or Carter for that matter.
8-06-2009 @ 6:04AM
Brad said...
Wall Street Journal huh? Sucks when your investments turn out to be worth little to nothing Rupert, just like all those stocks you didn't report on...Worthless Sucky Journalism more like it! Now go bully Amazon so you can blame them when your business goes totally under.
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8-06-2009 @ 10:03AM
Howard said...
Murdoch and quality. The two are mutually exclusive. As for all of you Fox fans bend over her it comes.
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8-06-2009 @ 10:17AM
JD said...
The WSJ was a beacon and a must read for financial professionals for decades. Now it is little more than another NewsCorp opinion rag with stocks and bond quotes. So now you want people to pay to hear your opinions?? We've already heard your opinions for years, whether we wanted to or not. Murdoch's little juinta of National Enquireresque enterprises needs to just go away. He ruined The New York Post, The Wall Street Journal, made network television news unrecognizable with his heavy-handed, opinionated, slanted editorializing. No one needs to pay for opinions. I won't and anyone who does is nuts.
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8-06-2009 @ 10:53AM
Seth said...
What 2 Billion profit last year. Now down 200 Million. He & Fox Noise are just that, hot air. People actually watch Fox. That is not New it clearly is Noise. MSMBC term, must credit the source. Fear mongers.
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8-06-2009 @ 11:09AM
Vinny said...
Murdock, in my opinion is quite simply a pig in sheeps clothing. He has NOTHING to offer and I have X'ed out FAUX NEWS and any program on TV that has ANY associatiom with this lying scum-bag. I will NEVER buy ANYTHING that his advertisers tout either in his Newspapers or anywhere else because by their actions they are supporting this pig who calls himself a human being. He is just a low life who thrives on destroying decent people and his TV and Newspaper ownership, in my opinion, needs to come to an end.
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8-06-2009 @ 11:25AM
Suzanne said...
I've already been considering a Kindle but to know that Amazon is pissing off the likes of Murdoch? Thats even better.......
Murdoch is part of the problem, not the solution, so to screw him at every turn makes me very happy. He is a huge reason why media has become such fluff. And him owning the Journal only discredits the WSJ, which was always in the pocket of big business, but now even more so in the pocket of the right wing nutjobs.
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8-06-2009 @ 5:09PM
Brad said...
Murdoch is an Australian citizen who should keep himself out of America. We always talk about the illegal aliens.... how about the big multi-millionaires who want to take over our country? This guy is what is wrong with America.... he should be run out of the country and his holdings frozen.
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8-06-2009 @ 11:43AM
Larry said...
I don't pay for anything that cockroach owns.......I dumped the WSJ (an honest conservative newpaper) they day he bought it and made it into another Rupert rag............
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8-06-2009 @ 11:59AM
Honest John said...
Yea!! Not one good thing was said about Murdoch!
You can spell Roach with his last name, and that must mean some-thing!! lol
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