10
Dec 09

Algorithm and blues

Les Hinton, Ruper Murdoch’s head honcho at Dow Jones, has been touring the world is the past week or two doing a stand-up routine about how Google has “stolen” content and revenue from newspapers. In India he had a line about “beware geeks bearing gifts” but a better one about “algorithm and blues”. Rupert himself has been doing the odd gig with the same content-rustling theme but different jokes.

When Rupert Murdoch and his senior people are talking a lot, it’s a fair bet that they either don’t know what to do or they want to shift the pieces on the board before making a play. When Rupert knows what he’s going to do, he doesn’t waste much breath telling anyone in advance.

Last night the Hinton roadshow hit London and Dow Jones clients got less of a soundbite and something a bit closer to the truth. “We’ve yielded our rights to our property”, said Les.

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