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SYDNEY - The success of News Corp's US$5 billion ($6.6 billion) takeover bid for Dow Jones, publisher of the Wall Street Journal, could have a startling effect on the Australian media market, fund managers predict.
Australian media analysts said financial news content from Dow Jones' wires, the Wall Street Journal and its Asian sister paper offered powerful content to drive News Corp's Australian websites and publications.
"Dow Jones is one of the few working pay websites that actually generates subscribers," 2MG Asset Management director Scott Maddock said.
"[Fairfax's] Australian Financial Review will be a pale imitation in terms of must-read content ... "
Maddock said News Corp's stewardship of the company would also increase the prestige of the Asian Wall Street Journal.
"The Asian Wall Street Journal has a chance to be paramount, rather than just a pastiche of American content with a few local stories thrown in."
Maddock was also confident Dow Jones could lift prices and said its revenue lines for the last decade showed it had been underselling its content.
- AAP
