Walt Mossberg and the Fox-Journal-CNBC Loophole

Sam Gustin knew it was only a matter of time.

When Rupert Murdoch purchased Dow Jones, publisher of the Wall Street Journal, it was no secret that he hoped to leverage the paper's stable of business news reporters to boost Fox Business Network, his nascent competitor to CNBC.

There was just one problem: CNBC and the Journal have an exclusive content partnership though 2012.

Not so exclusive, it appears.

Tomorrow, Walt Mossberg, the Journal's gadget guru, will launch a regular, weekly technology segment on Fox Business Network, Kevin Magee, executive vice president of Fox News, announced today.

So how did FBN get around the CNBC/Journal agreement? There are loopholes, of course. (There are always loopholes.)

"We can't just go ahead and use anything," Magee said at a conference earlier this year. "I believe the restrictions involve regularly-scheduled, branded segments. There is a carve-out for non-business news and there is a carve-out for breaking news."

So tune in tomorrow to see Walt Mossberg discuss "non-business" or "breaking" news. Well, I guess that rules out any discussion of the new iPhone, set to go on sale on Friday. Perhaps he'll talk about the latest in the A-Rod divorce case.