Can't Blame Murdoch for Seizing on Media Shift

For almost everyone, the outcome regarding News Corp.'s bid for Dow Jones is all but certain: Rupert Murdoch will get his plunder, the Journal will be used as leverage to launch his business-news cable channel, and the paper's stories will grow shorter.

But that's not all. At best, those stories will be squelched just enough to further Murdoch's own business interests; at worst, they'll become corporate PR under a sterling media brand. Murdoch, after all, has been said to regard journalists as furniture: If they clash with the interior décor, they can always be replaced.

So, Murdoch tends to be painted as something of a villain in all this. However, to News Corp. shareholders -- who have pushed the stock up slightly since the merger was announced -- he may be something of a hero, one who is laboring to drive up their investment's value.

I don't really buy either of these views. Murdoch isn't an agent for evil or good, he's a very efficient agent for change. The media industry is rapidly transforming, and Murdoch is one of the few in the business to have sense enough to clean up from it.

Every week seems to bring some new data confirming that print is losing money to the Internet. There are two basic reasons why: Online is faster than print in breaking and analyzing news. And it's a lot cheaper to advertise there.