Murdoch Mulls Journal-HarperCollins Alliance
MORE Off the Record
Add another item to the list of changes that the Murdoch era could usher in for The Wall Street Journal.
Since March 2004, The Journal has maintained an exclusive partnership with the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House with which the paper collaborates on Journal-themed reference guides, crossword puzzle collections and some of the nonfiction books written by its reporters. To date, they’ve collaborated on at least 12 books, among them The Wall Street Journal Guide to the Business of Life, The Wall Street Journal Complete Identity Theft Guidebook and The Price of Admission, by The Journal’s former Boston deputy bureau chief Daniel Golden.
But Crown’s contract with The Journal is set to run out this spring, and according to publishing insiders, it is unlikely that Rupert Murdoch—who will formally take over Dow Jones, The Journal’s parent company, next month—will want to preserve the affiliation. Instead, they say, he will probably seek to realign the paper’s books operation with HarperCollins, the publishing house he has owned since 1989.
And he may have just the person to make it happen. Steve Ross, who ran Crown when it inked its 2004 deal with The Journal and supervised the partnership, is now a top executive at HarperCollins, putting him in the perfect position to seal the deal. Indeed, according to one high-level editor at HarperCollins with knowledge of the situation, Mr. Ross and Brian Murray, the president of HarperCollins Worldwide, have already met with Journal representatives to discuss the idea. The editor also noted that Mr. Ross had recently acquired a book for HarperCollins by Dow Jones vice president Paul Ingrassia about the auto industry. Mr. Ross did not respond to a request for comment.
A spokesman for The Journal would not comment on the negotiations with HarperCollins, and a spokeswoman for Mr. Murray said that because The Journal still has an “ongoing business relationship” with Crown, “it is too soon to tell what will happen.”
What do you
have in your closet?
How long ago
was it when shoes were just footwear? You threw them on to go play out in the
back yard, or down on the playground. Today, however, having a pair of sneakers
has taken on a whole new meaning, especially when dealing with sports shoes.
What has really made the sneaker culture huge is the sport shoe industry, with
Nike and Adidas pulling up the front. These sports icons have been worn and
styled by not only top athletes, but by people in the music industry.
They say that it was the Nike Dunk
that started it all off. In 1985, Nike brought out the
Nike Dunk.
Originally these sneakers meant for the college community of basketball
players. Instead, this style of sports shoes started the sneaker sub-culture.
Although this style of sneaker was designed to be used during high intensity
basketball games, the spotlight quickly turned to the fashion of wearing them,
what they looked like, and which ones you owned. Twenty years later, Nike has
brought the Nike Dunk back on
the courts with all its retro style and performance.
But why stop
with basketball shoes? In 2000, Nike decided to jump into the skateboarding
scene with the new Nike Skateboarding product line.
With
Nike SB has come the
Nike Dunk SB. For years, before
skateboarding came out from the underground scene, skateboarders utilized the
rugged design of basketball shoes. Nike decided to capitalize on what Vans and
DC shoes had been monopolizing for years, and take what was already an amazing
sneaker, and fit it into the needs of skateboarders. What the
Nike Dunk
SB brought in the way of performance was extra-padded tongue and their
patented Zoom Air insole. In the way of style, this sneaker has already come out
with six series, and names for them like Grip, Forbes, and Vipers.
Another blast
from the past would be the Nike Air
Force 1. These sneakers first came out in the early 80’s. And like the
hip hop culture, their popularity grew. However, this band did not reach their
full fashion peek until 2002 when Nelly released the song “Air
Force Ones”.
The other major
sports shoe brand is the Adicolor
Shoes, an Adidas Original. The design became so popular because the
plain white canvas was adaptable by painting, drawing, and spraying on your own
personal design, and even accessories were sold to help you in your creativity.
In 2006 they pushed the envelope further with a new color series using artists
and designers from all over the world.
Another huge sneaker that was popular with the hip hop world was the
Adidas Superstar. A very raw
and controversial Hip Hop group that helped skyrocket the
Adidas
Superstar to stardom was Run-D.M.C. This cutting edge group was known for
wearing their Superstars out on stage, and even wrote a song dedicated to them
called “My Adidas”. Whether its Nike or Adidas, clean out that closet, dust off
your old sneakers, and get into the game.
What do you
have in your closet?
How long ago
was it when shoes were just footwear? You threw them on to go play out in the
back yard, or down on the playground. Today, however, having a pair of sneakers
has taken on a whole new meaning, especially when dealing with sports shoes.
What has really made the sneaker culture huge is the sport shoe industry, with
Nike and Adidas pulling up the front. These sports icons have been worn and
styled by not only top athletes, but by people in the music industry.
They say that it was the Nike Dunk
that started it all off. In 1985, Nike brought out the
Nike Dunk.
Originally these sneakers meant for the college community of basketball
players. Instead, this style of sports shoes started the sneaker sub-culture.
Although this style of sneaker was designed to be used during high intensity
basketball games, the spotlight quickly turned to the fashion of wearing them,
what they looked like, and which ones you owned. Twenty years later, Nike has
brought the Nike Dunk back on
the courts with all its retro style and performance.
But why stop
with basketball shoes? In 2000, Nike decided to jump into the skateboarding
scene with the new Nike Skateboarding product line.
With
Nike SB has come the
Nike Dunk SB. For years, before
skateboarding came out from the underground scene, skateboarders utilized the
rugged design of basketball shoes. Nike decided to capitalize on what Vans and
DC shoes had been monopolizing for years, and take what was already an amazing
sneaker, and fit it into the needs of skateboarders. What the
Nike Dunk
SB brought in the way of performance was extra-padded tongue and their
patented Zoom Air insole. In the way of style, this sneaker has already come out
with six series, and names for them like Grip, Forbes, and Vipers.
Another blast
from the past would be the Nike Air
Force 1. These sneakers first came out in the early 80’s. And like the
hip hop culture, their popularity grew. However, this band did not reach their
full fashion peek until 2002 when Nelly released the song “Air
Force Ones”.
The other major
sports shoe brand is the Adicolor
Shoes, an Adidas Original. The design became so popular because the
plain white canvas was adaptable by painting, drawing, and spraying on your own
personal design, and even accessories were sold to help you in your creativity.
In 2006 they pushed the envelope further with a new color series using artists
and designers from all over the world.
Another huge sneaker that was popular with the hip hop world was the
Adidas Superstar. A very raw
and controversial Hip Hop group that helped skyrocket the
Adidas
Superstar to stardom was Run-D.M.C. This cutting edge group was known for
wearing their Superstars out on stage, and even wrote a song dedicated to them
called “My Adidas”. Whether its Nike or Adidas, clean out that closet, dust off
your old sneakers, and get into the game.