MediaFile

News Corp Chief Executive and newspaper empire builder Rupert Murdoch showed up on the Fox Business Network (which he owns) on Thursday to talk about the future, or lack thereof, of newspapers.

Two key points: News Corp’s papers, which in the United States include The Wall Street Journal, the New York Post and the Ottaway chain of local dailies, will not take government money to help them stay afloat; and there is private financing for media companies out there. Here’s what Murdoch said on those topics, and more. (Thanks for FBN for this transcript)

On how newspapers will make money in the future
“Newspapers will make money the way we make it now – from our readers, from our advertisers. Newspapers may look very different. Instead of an analog product printed on paper, you may get it on a panel which will be mobile, which will receive the whole newspaper over the air, and be updated every hour or two. All of these things are possible and some of the greatest electronics companies in the world are working on this right now. I think it’s two or three years away before they get introduced in a big way and then it will probably take ten to fifteen years for the public to swing over.” …

On the future of newspapers on the Web:
“You’re going to have to pay for your favorite newspaper on the Web. [Free content online]…that’s going to stop. Newspapers will be selling subscriptions on the Web. The whole thing [premium content] will be there. The Web as it is today will be vastly improved, they’ll be much in them and you’ll pay for them.

“But there will be other platforms…You’ll be able to get the guts or the main headlines and alerts and everything on your Blackberry, your Palm or whatever, all day long. People need news. Communities live on news about their communities to be able to live and enjoy the world.”

The latest by-product of the financial crisis? Media lawsuits. More specifically: Government agencies deny or fail to respond to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests by media organizations, which then sue to force the government to own up.

The two latest cases are from News Corp’s Fox Business Network and The New York Times (both outlets’ complaints are pasted below). Fox sued for what it said was the government’s failure to respond to a FOIA request, filed on February 26, 2009, which sought records relating to information that the Securities and Exchange Commission received regarding the potential violations of the securities laws or any other potential wrongdoing by R. Allen Stanford, or Stanford Financial Group and its affiliates. This request included, but was not limited to, the SEC’s response to complaints, tips or information and any resulting audits, inquiries and investigations.

The Times’s complaint, filed by investigative reporter and Washington Post alum Jo Becker and her editor, chides the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Dept. for stalling or failing to disclose documents related to the financial crisis, including communications between some of the top dogs in the bailout program over the Troubled Asset Relief Program, better known as TARP.

What are you doing Saturday? Nothing? Wrong! You’re going on the Fox Business Network and you’re going to ask them questions about your finances. Here are the relevant details from the press release:

FOX Business Network (FBN) will debut “Your Questions, Your Money Live,” a new weekly series presented every Saturday from 10 AM to 2 PM (ET) starting January 24, announced Kevin Magee, Executive Vice President, FOX News.

Hosted by FBN’s Dagen McDowell, “Your Questions, Your Money Live,” is a weekly four-hour live call-in show where viewers can talk to experts about the ongoing economic crisis and raise questions about personal finance issues.

Fox Business Network‘s website had a good October, thanks to the financial crisis. Here are some numbers:

- 2.5 million unique users, its highest monthly audience ever
- 21st in unique users among all Nielsen’s financial news & information websites.
- 9th in visits per person, 15th in total visits, “stickiness,” and pages per person among all financial news and information websites.
- 3.9 million unique users as measured internally and 2.5 million as measured by Nielsen Online.

Meanwhile on election night, 79,196 homes tuned in to FBN, or 0.2 percent of the 42 million homes in which the network is available. Then again, only 0.3 percent of CNBC’s 97 million homes were watching.

If you didn’t know better, you’d think CNBC was running for office and Fox Business was the down-in-the-polls attack dog. 

That’s the feeling you get watching Fox Business’s latest TV ad, which throws CNBC star and stock picker Jim Cramer under the bus and urges viewers to, you know, kick CNBC to the curb.

Truth is, Fox sort of IS behind in the “polls” — its rating are still a fraction of CNBC’s, even though the global financial crisis has been on the front page for weeks. The New York Times, citing Neilsen data, says viewership exploded to 81,000, on average one day earlier this month. Fox Business had never previously drawn an audience large enough to be “statistically reliable” by Nielsen.

Ask any business reporter covering the financial crisis what they were doing this weekend — the answer is probably not “mowing the lawn” or “doing things that don’t involve work.”

The folks over at Fox Business Network is playing that to their advantage. A new ad, first reported by TVNewser (we think), points out that FBN was broadcasting live news this weekend while brand X, the much larger and older rival network CNBC, was mainly running taped broadcasting.

That said, CNBC was live on Sunday night with a two-hour special, but FBN is taking credit for running live coverage on Sunday morning, reporting that crucial progress had been made in Washington on the $700 billion bailout plan. At the time, spokeswoman Irena Briganti said, CNBC was airing a re-run of Suze Orman. Briganti said FBN also was running live for several hours on Saturday and Sunday while CNBC was not.

It looks like CNBC will have to figure out another way to bring in the viewers when the Apple 3G iPhone comes out. The old tried-and-true method, bringing on Wall Street Journal personal technology columnist Walt Mossberg, isn’t going to work anymore.

We got a press release, but will defer to Silicon Alley Insider, which looks like it had the news first — Walt is going to the Fox Business Network instead:

Mossberg is scheduled to appear weekly on Fox Business Network, meaning he will no longer be doing his “Personal Technology” segments on CNBC. Mossberg’s last appearance on CNBC was last week, sources said. He’ll start on FBN on Wednesday with an 11 a.m segment with morning co-anchors Dagen McDowell and Brian Sullivan. His regular weekly spot will be Thursdays at 11 a.m.