The Audit
Tue, 3 Jul 2007
Independence Day
No time for sunshine patriots at Dow Jones
By Posted at 03:21 PM Comments (0)Yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. —Tom Paine, The American Crisis The board of directors of the corporation, when evaluating any actions or transactions described in paragraph (a) of Article Seventh of this certificate of incorporation, shall give due consideration to all relevant factors, including without limitation the effect ... Read More
Fri, 29 Jun 2007
Why News Corp. Can't Cover the U.S. Business Story
It is the story
By Posted at 12:40 PM Comments (0)The business press, I have to say, has done a terrific job vetting News Corp. and Rupert Murdoch as potential owners of the nation's leading financial organ, The Wall Street Journal. The press rightly understands a broader community interest in an independent, sophisticated and courageous sentinal of corporate behavior, the financial markets, and regulators, not to mention human rights in ... Read More
Thu, 21 Jun 2007
Agency Problems at Dow Jones and the WSJ
Unusual job guarantees would put top Journal editors in a tight spot.
By Posted at 04:03 PM Comments (0)You can't tell the players without a scorecard, and today The Audit will spell out where the economic interests of business-side and news-side executives at Dow Jones & Co. and its prized asset, The Wall Street Journal, stand in regard to the News Corp. bid. Basically, the interests of key figures both at DJ and, unusually, at the WSJ are ... Read More
Tue, 19 Jun 2007
Secular vs. Cyclical
Shafer is wrong about Times piece
By Posted at 11:46 AM Comments (0)Jack Shafer finds a page one piece in Sunday's New York Times about a slowdown in online retail sales to be bogus, another forced trend story. The original story says that online sales growth is slowing from a peak of 25 percent a year and is projected to hit nine percent by the end of the decade. Press Box feels ... Read More
Thu, 14 Jun 2007
Changes at the Journal
The Audit’s interpretation
By Posted at 01:40 PM Comments (0)The Wall Street Journal's new managing editor, Marcus Brauchli, made some changes in the newsroom that are bold if nothing else. When was the last time you heard of senior editors being stripped of their titles? His memo to the staff is posted on paidContent.org. The moves can be seen, in my view, as a partial dismantling of the legacy ... Read More
Wed, 13 Jun 2007
The WSJ Story is Fine, But...
What's missing from coverage of the insurance "industry"
By Posted at 11:41 AM Comments (1)The WSJ did a story last week on the explosive growth of state-owned insurers of last resort. This is a fine story that makes an important point: the public has quietly been taking on massive liabilities, particularly since the 2004 and 2005 hurricane seasons— more than $600-billion from more than two million policies in 2006, up from $200 billion and ... Read More
