Murdoch's Love-Letter Math Doesn't Add Up

Anyhow, the all-important mystery answer is that the News Corp. board has 15 people. Add or replace one, and it means that the Bancrofts would have a roughly 6% say. This is on the order of a voice in the wilderness, so either Murdoch will have to offer more or, says The Business Press Maven, this particular love letter won't help consummate the relationship.

Principle 2: The Importance of Location

Speaking of consummated relationships, let's touch upon all the talk earlier in the week about Chrysler (DCX) and look at how local news, once again, won the prize.

While last weekend was brimming with talk of how Cerberus was "likely" to buy Chrysler Group or was "close to" doing so, The Detroit News, as far as The Business Press Maven can tell, was the first to drop the hedging. What others were reporting as probable, it reported as definite, thanks to its high-placed (local) sources.

Said the local paper of the American auto industry in its lead on May 13: "Cerberus Capital Management has reached agreement to buy the Chrysler Group in what would be a landmark acquisition of a major automaker by a private-equity firm, according to people close to the sale process." The deal, it rightly said, would be formally announced Monday.

Notice, as a separate issue, the issue of anonymous sources. They obviously have to be used in a situation like this, but at least Bill Vlasic, the author of this article, let you know that those he spoke to were close to the sale process. Could he still be wrong? Sure. Could he be making it up? Sure, though there's a lower possibility of that, because those actually close to the sale process would likely call up his editor and tear into them.

But we're always dealing with probabilities here, and there is a much better chance that anonymous sources "close to the process" are more accurate than the vague, almost ghostly Chatty Cathys in the New York Post's ill-fated, errant and poorly sourced recent piece on a Microsoft (MSFT)-Yahoo! (YHOO) deal.

And speaking of the founding principles of Business Press Maven thought and the ever-important issue of anonymous sources in the investment game, Southern California readers take heed: I will be speaking this Sunday, May 20, at noon at the Disneyland Hotel at the annual conference of the Society of American Business Editors and Writers.

In other words, I'll be telling all the business media's big batters why they have small sticks -- figuratively speaking, of course. I'll also give them some suggestions to improve, some easy to follow, some not. But come. After they chase me out, maybe we can go on Space Mountain together.

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