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The Economist Tracks Murdoch's Effort To Adapt To Digital Age

In a lengthy, admiring takeout on Rupert Murdoch's four-decades-long march to the top of media moguldom, The Economist says that the powerful businessman faces one overriding challenge in the years ahead --his corporation's  ability to adapt to the digital world.  The various units of New Corp. are "vulnerable," says the magazine, to content piracy, new-wave technologies, and the Internet's ad-siphoning powers.  It's a tricky business, surviving in the Net era, and it sometimes forces seemingly counterintuitive decisions. For example, News Corp. has sometimes subsidized the cost of DVRs for its satellite customers as a way of signing them up and keeping them onboard--although that of course has the effect of alienating advertisers, who don't appreciate the ability of DVRS to help users skip commercials.  The Economist observes that Murdoch is, all in all, moving headlong into the new digital arena, seemingly intent on capturing whatever advantages there are to be had.  (The purchase of red-hot MySpace.com is just one example.)  In sum, it's vintage Murdoch: he goes where the money is to be found. Still, the mag opines that News Corp. should continue cultivating its big legacy businesses. They "will need to keep focusing on making money" while the boss looks ahead to his "trendy" new Web enterprises.

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