The New York Observer, July 31st, 2007
On His Plans for The Wall Street Journal:
“We have no plans to change anything in the editorial.”
On Murdoch the Reader:
“[The Wall Street Journal] is absolutely my first paper, the Post is my second.”
On Being Quoted Saying The Journal’s Front Page Stories Are Too Long:
“That’s my incapacity as a slow reader, perhaps.”
On Retirement:
“[What] I’d love to do is retire and be the full-time chairman of The Journal for a few years … but I’ve got too many responsibilities here and everywhere else.”
On The Journal’s Subscription Rate:
“What if they made The Wall Street Journal free instead of charging 80 bucks?”
On The Wall Street Journal Covering News Corp.:
“I just ask you to spell my name right.”
On the (Other) Times and the (Other) Sun:
“I feel more restraint at the [London] Times than I would at the [New York] Post and so on. Let me give you another parallel: London. I walk around the Sun office a lot more than I walk around the Times office.”
On Staff Retention:
“Huge raises for everybody. [Laughter] I’d have to see when I get in there.”
On James Ottaway:
“Those silly little Ottaway papers make more than the Journal does.”
—The Wall Street Journal, June 6, 2007
On Having a Past:
“It’s been a long career, and I’ve made some mistakes along the way. We’re not all virgins.”
On Editing Tabloids:
“Agendas up to a point, and certainly crusades. But I don’t call all those shots. I haven’t got the time.”
On His Diverse Stable:
“There’s such a thing as a popular newspaper and an unpopular elite newspaper. They play different roles. We have both kinds.”
On Spicing Things Up:
“When The Journal gets its Page 3 girls, we’ll make sure they have M.B.A.’s.”
On Whether His Media Empire Favors the Right:
“I don’t know.… We don’t think we do. We’ve always insisted that we don’t. I don’t think we do. Aw, it’s subjective. Neither side admits it.”
A Fugue on the Future:
“No printing plants, no paper, no trucks. How long would it take for the advertising to come? It would be successful, it would work and you’d make … a little bit of money. Then again, The Journal and The Times make very little money now.”
On The New York Times:
“It has a huge influence. And we’d love to challenge it.”
On The Journal’s Quirky Side:
“To have these esoteric, well-written stories on Page One every day is great. But I still think you want some hard news. I’d try to keep many more of them for the weekend.”
—Time magazine, June 28, 2007
Identifying the Chief Pleasure of Newspaper Publishing:
“Being involved with the editor of a paper in a day-to-day campaign. Trying to influence people.”
Imagining Being the Publisher of The Wall Street Journal:
“I’d love to wander around [the newsroom]. I’m not going to have much time to do it. I find people quite like it if I show an interest in their work.”
A Confession on‘Quality’:
“I’m quite ashamed. I enjoy popular journalism. I must say I enjoy it more than what you would call quality journalism.”
—The New Yorker, July 2, 2007
On His Outspokenness:
“I don’t apologize for the fact that I have always had strong opinions and strong ideas about newspapers; but I have also always respected the independence and integrity of the news organizations with which I am associated.”
On Interference:
“[Any] interference—or even hint of interference—would break the trust that exists between the paper and its readers, something I am unwilling to countenance. Apart from breaching the public’s trust, it would simply be bad business.”
—Letter to the Bancroft Family, July 25, 2007
Compiled by Julia F. Heming
