《財富》獨家專訪默多克:關于離婚、接班人和傳媒帝國的未來
????魯伯特?默多克在接受《財富》雜志(Fortune)獨家采訪時說:“我今年1月和2月運氣很不好。我在舊金山摔了一跤,碰到了頭。”《財富》雜志將深度報道這位媒體巨頭最近經歷的一系列挑戰。 ????默多克在今天先行發布的專訪中(特寫文章將刊登在4月28日出版的《財富》雜志上)談到了他的跨國媒體集團為什么要分拆為兩個上市公司,如何修復同成年子女的緊張關系,如何召回大兒子拉克倫重返商界,以及為什么要高調結束同鄧文迪長達14年的婚姻。 ????即使正在面對旗下英國報紙竊聽丑聞引發的訴訟,默多克(今年3月份即將年滿83歲)仍然精力充沛,對自己的麻煩直言不諱,甚至還對Facebook、邁克爾?布隆伯格和2016年總統大選等問題發表了看法。 ????《財富》雜志資深編輯帕蒂?塞勒斯3月末在曼哈頓的新聞集團(News Corp.)辦公室采訪了默多克。談話要點如下: ????默多克談到召回長子拉克倫擔任新聞集團和21世紀??怂梗?1st Century Fox)的非執行董事長的過程。拉克倫2005年因為同管理高層關系緊張而離開公司。21世紀??怂箵碛腥ツ晗奶炫c核心報紙業務拆分的電視與電影資產。去年七月份,在艾倫公司(Allen & Co.)于愛達荷州太陽谷召開的會議上,默多克在用餐時說:“拉克倫和(我的小兒子)詹姆斯與我就如何組團協作進行了一次非常嚴肅的談話。我們談了兩三個小時。拉克倫并不是不會再回來。問題在于,我們如何共同合作。” 默多克還談到如何緩和同女兒伊麗莎白的關系,他希望女兒在公司內發揮重要作用。默多克的兩家公司市值超過800億美元,默多克自己持有40%的股份,擁有控股權并對公司發號施令。 ????談到報紙如何適應數字化時代問題時,他預計虧損的《紐約郵報》(New York Post)也許能以數字形式繼續存在10年。他估計《華爾街日報》(Wall Street Journal)的印刷版能維持更長時間。2007年,默多克入主道瓊斯(Dow Jones)時收購了《華爾街日報》。 ????除了道瓊斯的路透商業資訊(Factiva)外,默多克還一直在努力建立其他數據服務。他對前紐約市市長邁克爾?布隆伯格本人及其價值百億的公司都大加贊賞。默多克說:“邁克爾占據了事實上的壟斷地位。這是一個非常小的市場,也是一個非常高端的市場。我記得有一天他曾打電話給我,抱怨《紐約時報》中的一些批評意見。我說:‘我剛剛讀了《彭博視點》(Bloomberg View),里面的觀點絕對傷害了我?!f:‘哈,沒人會讀那里面的文章?!?/p> ????默多克解釋了他為何會在電視體育上押下重注,推出??怂贵w育1臺(Fox Sports 1):因為ESPN是“一座金礦”。它的價值甚至超過了??怂剐侣勁_(Fox News)。這并不意味著??怂剐侣勁_令默多克感到不安,他說:“世界上沒有一家有線電視公司會砍掉它,除非他們想讓自己的房子被人燒掉。”在被問到??怂剐侣勁_有時候的極右觀點會否破壞美國政治、甚至傷害共和黨時,他的回答是:“我認為它絕對是挽救了共和黨。”” ????對于2016年美國總統大選,默多克相信“將在四五個人之間角逐。”他最看好杰布?布什(小布什之弟——譯注)和保羅?瑞安。來自威斯康辛州的保守眾議員瑞安曾擔任眾議院預算委員會(House Budget Committee)主席。默多克說:“瑞安絕對是我見過的最正直的人?!?/p> ????默多克還談到為說服夢工廠(DreamWorks)CEO斯塔西?斯奈德加入20世紀福克斯(20th Century Fox)所做的努力。他談到了20世紀??怂古臄z兩部(沒錯,是兩部?。栋⒎策_》續集的計劃。此外,他還談到了自己在60年的全球擴張過程中最大的失望:2005年以5.8億美元收購的MySpace,最終慘敗于Facebook。默多克說:“我認為這是我一生最大的敗筆?!?/p> ????個人生活方面,默多克首次公開談到了離婚時間,講了他看到鄧文迪在日記中記錄其他男人時的感受(“我當時很震驚”),還有他打算如何翻開“新的篇章”。他談到最近在加州購買的13英畝的葡萄園,還有10,000平方英尺的曼哈頓新公寓。公寓的價格恐怕只有億萬富翁才會欣然接受:5,725萬美元。(財富中文網) ????譯者:劉進龍/汪皓 ???? |
????"I had a very bad month in January and February. I had a fall in San Francisco. I fell on my head," says Rupert Murdoch in an exclusive interview with Fortune Magazine that covers the gamut of the media titan's latest challenges. ????In the Q&A, released today and featured in Fortune's April 28 issue, Murdoch talks about splitting his global media conglomerate into two public companies, struggling to repair frayed relationships with his grown children, luring eldest son Lachlan back into the business, and enduring a high-profile divorce from Wendi Deng, after a 14-year marriage. ????And even as he's coped with legal woes related to the phone-hacking scandal in his British newspaper business, Murdoch, who turned 83 in March, comes across as vigorous, candid about his troubles -- and ever opinionated about a broad array of topics from Facebook (FB) to Michael Bloomberg to the 2016 Presidential race. ????Fortune senior editor at large Pattie Sellers talked with Murdoch in his News Corp. office in Manhattan in late March. Some highlights of the interview: ????Murdoch reveals how he coaxed son Lachlan, who left News Corp. in 2005 over tensions with senior management, to return as non-executive chairman of both News Corp. (NWS) and 21st Century Fox (FOX), which holds the TV and movie assets that separated from the core newspaper operations last summer. Over a meal at the Allen & Co. conference last July in Sun Valley, Idaho, "Lachlan and [younger son] James and I had a very serious talk about how we can work as a team," Murdoch says. "We had two or three hours together. Lachlan was not not going to come back. It was a question of how we would work together?" Murdoch also talks about easing tensions with his daughter Elisabeth and his hopes for her to play a major role inside his companies, which have a combined stock-market value of more than $80 billion. Murdoch owns almost 40%, controls the voting stock, and calls the shots. ????About adapting his newspapers to the digital age, Murdoch says that the New York Post, his money-losing daily tabloid, may exist only in digital form in 10 years. He expects the Wall Street Journal, which he bought as part of Dow Jones in 2007, to remain in print form longer. ????While he's struggled to build data services beyond Dow Jones' Factiva, Murdoch greatly admires Bloomberg – both ex-New York mayor Michael Bloomberg and the multi-billion business he created. "Mike's got a virtual monopoly there," says Murdoch. "It's a very small market, a very elite market. I remember when he rang me one day to complain about some criticism in the Post. I said, 'I've just read Bloomberg View, and it absolutely lacerated me.' He said, 'Oh, nobody reads that.' ????Murdoch explains why he's betting big on TV sports, with the new Fox Sports 1 cable network: ESPN is "a goldmine. It's an even bigger goldmine than Fox News." Not that Murdoch frets about Fox News: "No cable company in the world is going to drop it unless they want their houses burnt down," he says, Asked if Fox News' sometimes extreme right-wing views may have denigrated the U.S. political process and even hurt the Republican party, he replies, "I think it has absolutely saved it." ????The 2016 Presidential election, Murdoch believes, "is between four or five people." He ranks Jeb Bush and Paul Ryan at the top of his list. Ryan, the conservative Congressman from Wisconsin who chairs the House Budget Committee, "is the straightest arrow I've ever met," he says. ????Murdoch talks about trying to woo DreamWorks CEO Stacey Snider to 20th Century Fox, the film studio's plans for two (yes, two!) sequels to Avatar, and perhaps his greatest disappointment in almost 60 years of global empire-building: MySpace, which he bought in 2005 for $580 million, failed vs. Facebook. "It think it was one of our great screw-ups of all time," Murdoch says. ????And on the personal front, Murdoch opens up for the first time publicly about his divorce, how he felt when he read Wendi Deng's alleged diary entries about other men ("I was shocked") and how he is now moving into "a new chapter." He talks about the 13-acre vineyard that he recently bought in California and his new 10,000-square-foot Manhattan apartment that came with a price tag only a billionaire can love: $57.25 million. |