The Wall Street Journal Under Rupert Murdoch

Rupert Murdoch’s news Corp purchased the Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones for $5 billion in 2007. Under the Australian-born media magnate, coverage has clearly moved away from what had been the paper’s core mission under previous ownership -- covering business and corporate America.

In the past three and a half years, front-page coverage of business is down about one-third from what it had been in 2007, the last year of the old ownership regime. That, to some degree, reflects the Journal’s move toward a more general interest publication. And some categories of news, such as coverage of government, foreign news involving the U.S. and lifestyle subjects, have increased noticeably in recent years. Yet attention to other subject areas has fallen. Front-page coverage of health and medicine has been de-emphasized the past few years. Education issues have virtually disappeared from the front pages as has -- ironically enough, given the current state of affairs -- attention to the media industry.