Wolff: Murdoch Has “No Vision”

More Rupert Murdoch trivia dribbling out from his authorized hagiographer, Michael Wolff. His book is published in January by Murdoch’s HarperCollins, who we are told was “instantly wild about the notion — and the chance to do something for Murdoch.” How did the book come about? “I sensed he might be open to the attention — that he was proud of winning the Wall Street Journal,” writes Wolff. And what did he find? “Murdoch, at 77, can’t use a computer, doesn’t get email, can’t get his cell phone to work properly, can’t even imagine changing the variables on a spread sheet.” And, “Contravening all rules of modern analytic management, [Murdoch] acts almost entirely on impulse — his method is all based on instinct, urge, gossip (i.e. a more or less random collection of things he’s been told), and the impelling force of immediate and casual circumstance.” And his conclusion? “The joke is that this greatest of modern businessmen, the architect of the synergised, cross-platform, integrated, global media company, has no vision, no method, no strategy.”