The world according to Rupert
Here are some of the Murdoch quotes du jour, ranging from how to fix The Wall Street Journal to why Facebook just is an overrated phonebook...
On News Corp's world domination: "Unlike many of our peers, News Corporation is a truly global company, operating a diversified collection of international businesses, generating nearly half its consolidated revenues outside of North America and holding market leading positions in emerging economies... we are positioning and investing to seize the opportunities of operating in a global society that's becoming increasingly dependent on digital media."
On what's hot in Silicon Valley: "I went to a conference (there) a couple of weeks ago, the excitement that you could feel surrounding MySpace was infectious."
On social networking and why Facebook's no threat: "While (Facebook) has grown rapidly over the past several months, it is still only 45 per cent of MySpace in terms of the unique users and about 33 per cent in terms of page view... Most importantly, the two platforms are very different in the user experience. MySpace is a place for self-expression... Facebook, on the other hand, tends to be a web utility, similar to a phonebook."
On advertising online: "There are 23 million small businesses in the United States and less than 1 million advertise online. With Self-Serve (MySpace's new tool for creating customised ads), we hope to bring that new class of advertisers to MySpace."
On hyper targeting: "We rolled out the first phase of hyper-targeting in July to 50 advertisers by submitting our audience into 10 unique interest groups, from movies to finance to fashion... performance lifted up to 300 per cent for those using hyper-targeting."
On newspapers: "At a time when pundits are heralding the demise of newspapers, all of our newspaper groups are reporting year-on-year revenue growth. For instance, the Wall Street Journal print revenues were up 7 per cent in October and online revenues were up 30 per cent."
On his plans for The Wall Street Journal: "The number one priority absolutely is to get (it) as we'd like it."
On making the WSJ free: "We are examining the possibilities of doing that. There are a lot of pros and cons. We passed one million people now who are paying for it, and getting very, very high cost per thousand for advertising. On the other hand, if that was to jump to 10 million or 20 million people around the world, it could be a wonderful thing for the brand. We would be selling the ads at a lower cost per thousand but I think we'd be in front."
On overruling the Bancroft family and nominating opera singer Natalie as the family rep on the News Corp board: "They are a funny family and they couldn't decide between themselves who to nominate and that's about all I can say... We chose Natalie and we're looking forward to having her as a colleague."
On News Corp's strategy in the face of the US's uncertain economic climate: "We'll go full bore ahead."
All quotes taken from the full transcript of the News Corp meeting on www.SeekingAlpha.com. To see the full original transcript, click here.