Another Blow to the Journal's Pride

Score one for K. Rupert Murdoch & Co. On Page 34 of today's New York Post, the word "exclusive" splashed across the business page under the headline "Bill's Hard Drive." The Post was breaking the news that Microsoft had resumed talks to buy Yahoo.

As anyone in the news business well knows, there's nothing worse than getting scooped. For Wall Street Journal reporters, there's nothing worse than getting scooped by the New York Post.

But it's especially humbling the same week that New York Post owner Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation made an unwelcome offer to buy the august Journal and its parent company, Dow Jones.

The Journal confirmed the news of Microsoft-Yahoo talks and published a story online around 8 a.m., complete with a pride-swallowing nod to the tabloid: "The news was first reported in the New York Post."

Many staffers at the Wall Street Journal are horrified by the thought of a Murdoch-owned Journal.

"Murdoch is like the boogeyman," says one. "This has been in the realm of possibility for years, and it's usually contemplated with a shudder."

The union representing Dow Jones staffers cited Murdoch's history of "willingness to crush quality and independence."

Journal staffers scoff at the thought of being in the same family as sensationalist tabloids like the Post, not to mention Fox News, which is considered by many to have a conservative political agenda.

While the Journal's editorial pages are similarly conservative, the editorial staff has always prided itself on the independence of its news pages.

Staffers at the New York Post must have felt some vindication with the Yahoo scoop. But the Journal clearly still has the upper hand when it comes to influence.

This morning on CNBC's Squawk Box, the hosts barely uttered a word about the merger talks until they got word that the Wall Street Journal had confirmed it.

by Megan Barnett