New York Magazine profiles Rupert Murdoch in depth

New York Magazine has a fascinating 8-page in-depth look at Rupert Murdoch, his recent feuds, and his family dynasty.

The first half is devoted to Murdoch’s purchase of the Wall Street Journal and its subsequent transformation into a general-news paper with which to take on the New York Times. While this does not necessarily have a great deal to do with electronic reading, it does provide some excellent background behind both Murdoch’s and the Times’s decision to implement paywalls.

But in the second half, there is some coverage of Murdoch’s much-publicized feud with Google, which we have covered here a number of times. There are some details about Murdoch’s strategy for dealing with Google (including perhaps pulling all News Corp content from Google News and brokering a deal with Microsoft to put it on Bing, and possibly even suing Google), and discussion of Murdoch’s attitudes toward the Internet.

“Digital is out of his comfort zone,” a former senior MySpace executive says. “It’s much more the Wild West. He gets the raw-competition part of it, but he’s never been in a place where the business model isn’t clear. The destruction is just happening so fast.”

Much of the rest of the article deals with Murdoch’s children and their present and potential future roles in Murdoch’s media dynasty.

This is a great article, and should be read by anyone seeking to understand Murdoch’s role in establishing the future of electronic and print media.