Where is the rotten old bastard taking his latest acquisition?

O.K. I know there are more posts on Think! about the WSJ but this is because I divulge from the received wisdom, which is that Murdoch is true to his word and intends his priority to be directly taking on the NYT, owner of the International Herald Tribune.

My view is somewhat different, and that is that he is in fact not going to be gunning first and foremost for the NYT, nor the FT even, but the IHT.

Put the WSJ inside The Times of London as its business section and you already have the makings of an excellent International Times (already with News Int print and distribution in Europe). On the business reader surveys in Europe the extra 400,000 EBRS readers of The Times that would be delivered to the WSJ would blow the IHT out of the water.

Take more content into that International London Times from his Australian property The Australian, again with the WSJ as its business section, and you have the makings of quite a compelling proposition also for the Asian market.

Then there is the thought that he does an FT in America (not his recent hire of FT NY editor to head up the business section of The Times) and are we looking at him marketing The International Times of London in the United States, given that unlike the NYT originally, the WSJ is already well established as a national title. (Or put The International London Times inside the US edition of the WSJ?)

Plus Murdoch can do something that the NYT/IHT can't - he has a stack load of international television channels to market the his paper so aggressively that the NYT would be obliged to put multi-millions into marketing even to be remembered: Sky, Fox, on the list goes.....

Anyway, more to reflect on here but as an International Herald Tribune reader might you be tempted by

• Times of London+Australian+ WSJ for business and U.S coverage

or

• IHT plus Reuters for Business.

Given what is quite a wave of anti-Americanism maybe Murdoch can create a much more truly international newspaper to surf the global wave.

Anyway...some more thoughts from Slate back in early Jan.

Reading the Murdoch Street Journal
Where is the rotten old bastard taking his latest acquisition?
Media scholar Ben Compaine tells me he thinks the Wall Street Journal has begun to reflect the journalistic philosophy of genocidal tyrant Rupert Murdoch, who completed his acquisition of its parent company, Dow Jones & Co., in the middle of December.
http://slate.com/id/2181355/

Make note of reference to The Australian.