As the leading media figure in the world, Rupert Murdoch is one to listen to when it comes to views about old and new media. TheStreet.com landed an interview with the king of media.
Here are some highlights:
On buying The New York Times: “That’s nonsense… But I would imagine that it would be
legally and politically almost impossible, so I’m not thinking about
it.”
On MySpace shakeup: “The business sort of grew out of control and really out of size. I blame myself and it had to be brought back in size… it will be a very different social
site to, say Facebook.”
On Google as news distributor and copyright issues: “I mean, there are billions of dollars spent,
probably every month, but certainly every year in the collection and
the creation of copyright by organizations and they cannot do that and
have that material which they own stolen from them or the business will be destroyed.”
On Twitter: “It’s an amazing phenomenon but I have no idea how they can
monetize it. No one monetizes the Web today to any extent other than
search.”
On CNBC and if he’s annoyed at them: “No… Because we’re going to enjoy the competition. We have to get
wider distribution and that takes time.”
On hiring CNBC talent: “We don’t think they’re all that good. There are some good ones, but
that’ll be up to [Fox News boss] Roger Ailes. We create or we discover
previously undiscovered talent and make them into stars.”
(Image source: farm.1.static.flickr)
