Media mogul Rupert Murdoch has his sights set on the Dow Jones conglomerate which includes news aggregator Factiva. When a newspaper tycoon like Murdock looks to add another company and newspaper brands to his stable, the conversation is understandably dominated by the newspapers involved. But the strength of the Dow Jones group online, in my opinion has a lot more to do with Murdoch's ambitions than owning another newspaper.
He's admitted it himself, Murdoch has yet to make the most of the internet and the new information medium has dented his newspapers and television stations. Dow Jones meanwhile has a strong web strategy. The Wall Street Journal is a subscription access newspaper and a successful one at that. Factiva, now fully owned by Dow Jones has a wealth of technology and knowledge on extracting value from the web.
If Murdoch's News Corporation could adopt the technology behind Factiva, and learn Dow Jones' tricks of the trade in charging access to news the results could be staggering.
No doubt the news today that Reuters and Thomson are considering a tie up will add weight to the case for acquisition, the only question is, will the Bancroft family, which owns the majority of the shares sell?
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