The Sun also sets
December 2nd, 2010Rupert Murdoch’s internet strategy has failed in a catastrophic way. And none of the world’s mainstream media has noticed.
The evidence is not in the online circulation of The Times, which has plunged since Murdoch decided to charge viewers who wished to view it online. This has been covered exhaustively.
The evidence is from The Sun, the paper which made his fortune, and made him a major player in the world’s media.
Murdoch bought The Sun way back in the 1960′s from the Daily Mirror group. The paper he bought was originally Britain’s only large circulation left wing daily newspaper, originally half owned by the trade union movement. The Daily Mirror’s Hugh Cudlipp had relaunched it in the 1960′s under the title of The Sun. It continued to lose money so Cudlipp sold it to Murdoch for a song.
Murdoch transformed it, from a serious newspaper, to a tabloid, whose main feature was the half-naked woman on Page Three. It made his fortune, brought a circulation bigger than the Daily Mirror. Gave him the money to buy The Times and the political clout to demand tea and sympathy at 10 Downing Street.
Fast forward to 2010, when The Sun is still selling a few million at the newstands, but which has been outstripped online by the Daily Mail. Which does not go in for soft porn, a la Page Three. But which knocks the current Sun into a cocked hat by its coverage of the lives of the starlets.
Unlike The Times, The Sun, is free online.
The working classes, and the rest, can read their brilliant sports coverage. (That was Murdoch’s party line in the 1960′s. Brit males did not buy The Sun for the Page Three pics, but because it had brilliant sports coverage.)
This same out-of-touch Rupert Murdoch is also trying to grab 100 per cent ownership of Sky Television, where he has been more successful.
Apparently, David Cameron, is only too eager to here what his has to say. Because – evidence Murdoch’s recent milliion pound contributions to the American Republican Party – Murdoch is not going to support Labour, under its present leadership, or even the LibDems.