Follow LA Observed on Twitter here
Those are the lighter-side-of-the-news features that have been a hallmark of the WSJ since 1941 (credit goes to Barney Kilgore, father of the modern Wall Street Journal, and Bill Kerby, the Journal’s first Page One editor). They appeared in the middle column of the front page (that's before the redesign; now, they're often down page), and as cited in Floating Off the Front Page, the stories can be about feuding nudists or makers of high-quality prison underwear. Well, Rupert Murdoch, whose News Corp. is acquiring the WSJ, likes A-heds, but as he told the NYT's Joe Nocera, "I don't like a whole page of A-heds." Nocera was having breakfast last week with Murdoch, who picked up the Journal and said, “I would like to see real breaking news.”
He scanned the front page up and down. Sometimes his expression suggested deep approval of what he was seeing; but sometimes he frowned, suggesting that he had a different idea of what ought to run on the front page of this great newspaper he would soon own. “I just think The Journal needs a little more urgency,” he said finally.
By the way, Nocera asked him if there ever a time he thought of pulling the offer.
“Yeah,” he replied. “After they sent that letter. It was so insulting.” That was the letter in which the [Bancroft family] hoped to ensure editorial integrity by giving themselves the right to nominate News Corporation directors as well as a special editorial board for The Wall Street Journal. He swiftly rejected it, and eventually the Dow Jones board took over the negotiations that resulted in the creation of a small oversight board to protect the paper’s editorial independence. Mr. Murdoch himself seemed unruffled by the need for such an agreement — or even by the accusations that he runs roughshod over the newspapers he owns. “I’m used to it,” he shrugged.
Mark Lacter created the LA Biz Observed blog in 2006. He posted
until the day before his death on Nov. 13, 2013.