Murdoch gets feet under WSJ boardroom table

MURDOCH GETS FEET UNDER WSJ BOARDROOM TABLE
[SOURCE: Financial Times 10/7, AUTHOR: Joshua Chaffin and Aline van Duyn]
News Corp’s $5bn deal to acquire Dow Jones and its crown jewel, the Wall Street Journal, is not expected to close until December. Yet in the corridors of the publisher’s lower Manhattan headquarters, News Corp and its chief executive, Rupert Murdoch, are already making their presence felt. The television in the lobby, once regularly tuned to cable business network CNBC, now features News Corp’s Fox News Channel. Meanwhile, Mr Murdoch himself has become a regular visitor, setting up office in one of the conference rooms. During visits, he has met reporters and scrutinized everything from company strategy to the placement of specific photos in the Journal, according to people familiar with the matter. The man who launched his global media empire from a single Australian newspaper has also impressed Dow technicians with his knowledge of printing minutiae. The rapid pace of integration talks reflects Mr Murdoch’s personal enthusiasm for his prized acquisition. It is also a result of regulators not challenging the deal, which means that there are few legal obstacles to in-depth planning.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/3fb59a28-7518-11dc-892d-0000779fd2ac.html
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