And so it begins... Rupert Murdoch has made the first significant move to extend the Wall Street Journal franchise through a deal with The Australian. From tomorrow the paper - owned by Murdoch's News Corporation - will carry a daily branded WSJ page in its business section.
The Australian refers to it as a ground-breaking partnership. The deal will also allow the paper to publish WSJ articles as well as daily content from Dow Jones newswires on The Australian's website. Naturally enough, The Australian is cock-a-hoop. Its editor-in-chief, Chris Mitchell, speaks of it heralding a new era of business journalism for his paper and talks up the way in which it will make his paper "Australia's pre-eminent source of business coverage."
Fair enough. But it is surely only the first step in the global expansion of the WSJ under Murdoch's ownership. Though News Corp was at pains to refer to the deal as "independent" of its WSJ acquisition - which, of course, is not yet finalised - it is a clear pointer to the future. How long before there is a branded WSJ page in The Times?
The breaking of this story also reveals why Murdoch is said to be so eager to free up the WSJ's online content. I first came across it on the WSJ website, but it offered only a 23-word preview. Only subscribers could read the full story, itself running to just 128 words. There really is no point to such restrictions - because I found the tale easily elsewhere on the net.
