A business model in the making

The phrase "incremental gradualism" is one of my favourites. It's typically used by consultants and politicians when what they really mean is that they're making things up as they go along.

It's also a convenient shorthand for attacking things by stealth, as Rupert Murdoch seems to be doing. According to my contacts within the News Corporation empire, Murdoch is set to step down in a couple of years and hand over the reins of power to his son James. In the interim, he's trying to leave a sustainable business model as his legacy.

Part of that is an internet media offering that users will pay for. The erection of the pay wall occurred just over a month ago. As yet, very little information is to be had on this subject. So little, in fact, that it makes the secrecy of Soviet-era Kremlinology and the election of a new Pope seem like exercises in open governance. The normal rule is that no news is bad news. But this one is being played so close to the corporate chest that even the most robust take-up of the pay option would not have been leaked to the market. Truly a case of creeping along slowly, incremental gradualism, and all that.

As is, undoubtedly, the softly, softly pursuit of British Sky Broadcasting. Murdoch senior has been the driving force in satellite broadcasting in the UK and many other parts of the world for the past two decades. The UK and US authorities have been on his case for all of that time, and longer. Murdoch famously had to change nationality from Australian to American to comply with somewhat chauvinistic US rules on the ownership of certain media organisations. In Britain, News Corporation has consistently been warned against taking control of BSKYB, which has always, in reality, been its creature. Now, at last, Murdoch is moving in on the broadcaster. The share price is little more than a third of what it was twenty years ago, and I, for one, feel sorry for the shareholders. The good news for them is that the only objections I can see being raised to the bid are those of price. Murdoch as a bidder and owner is accepted. He just has to stump up more cash, and then he'll have another prize asset to hand on to young(ish) James. It will all happen, gradually, incrementally...

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