Looking East, Looking West And Looking Down

Michael Hedges January 6, 2014 Follow on Twitter

Despite choruses from the highly quoted media thinkers of our day, traditional media – publishing and broadcasting – continues to have the one thing hard to buy at any price but that the rich and powerful want more than anything. Influence is brighter than gold. Quite hot to the touch, too.

Challenged by a slow start to the new year, media watchers world-wide were overjoyed to learn that Chinese multi-millionaire Chen Guangbiao is prepared – mentally, at least – to buy the New York Times (NYT). Others have talked about buying the NYT, usually for the influence. Some have leveraged their children’s inheritance to compete with it. Mr. Chen became enamored with the world’s best-known newspaper after buying an ad in it promoting the Chinese view of the Senkaku Islands dispute.

“After that, I realized that the Times' influence all over the world is incredibly vast,” he said to Megha Rajagopalan of Reuters (December 31). “Every government and embassy, all around the world, pays attention to The New York Times.” Every Chinese household should subscribe to the NYT, he added, even though the Chinese government has been blocking the NYT website for more than a year.

In China Mr. Chen, who made millions in the recycling business, is known as something of an eccentric. About this time last year he opened a business selling cans of “fresh air” in notoriously polluted Beijing. He’s posed for photo-ops showing off his rooms full of money. Estimates suggest he’s worth about US$750 million, which, he said, would be pooled with cash from an unnamed rich person from Hong Kong to lift the eyes of New York Times Company chairman Arthur Sulzberger.

“There’s nothing that can’t be bought at the right price,” he observed. But, in case a deal can’t be struck, he’d “be willing to consider buying lesser media outlets,” such as the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post or CNN, “as long as they have some influence.”

Media giant Time Warner owns CNN and CEO Jeff Bewkes has, in recent years, ditched internet portal AOL and Time Warner Cable. Next on the block is publisher Time Inc. Television assets like CNN are probably safe. And billionaire Amazon founder Jeff Bezos just bought the Washington Post, intentions rather unclear.

As for the Wall Street Journal, it’s still Rupert Murdoch’s prized possession. Splitting his empire this past year into 21st Century Fox and News Corporation separated the highly profitable television and entertainment businesses from the less than stellar publishing business with ongoing legal irritations in the UK. Under Mr. Murdoch’s direction the Wall Street Journal has dipped further into right-wing political advocacy and its influence has waned, particularly vis-à-vis the New York Times.

Hitting a “brick wall” 21st Century Fox finally withdrew from China, selling its 47% stake in Star China TV, announced James Murdoch, who heads the international division. The Elder Mr. Murdoch got excited about doing business in China 20 years ago and once the old News Corporation held a majority of the TV company. Wary of foreign media influence Chinese authorities have become “quite paranoid about what gets through,” noted the younger Mr. Murdoch, quoted by the Sydney Morning Herald (January 3).

Earlier in the year the Elder Mr. Murdoch divorced Chinese wife Wendi Deng, number three, who had been a Star China TV executive. Murdoch biographer Michael Wolff predicts The Elder will dispose of the UK Times and Sunday Times, turning “a cold shoulder to Britain,” (Guardian December 30) as well as the New York Post, “however sentimental.” The new News Corporation is loaded with cash after the split and, said Wolff, might be a buyer for the Time Warner publishing business.

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