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Continuing coverage of the Dow Jones Story

The New York Times (NYT) isn't the only media company that was concerned about the acquisition of Dow Jones & Co. (DJ) by News Corp. (NWS-A) and Rupert Murdoch. Some international publications and media companies are feeling the squeeze as well.

Don't misunderstand what the major purpose behind the deal for Dow Jones was all about: content. There was also of course its strength in Asia, something areas News Corp. was weak in. But nonetheless, primarily it was about the content offered by the various properties involved with the deal, especially the Wall Street Journal, that drove the deal.

One company that will be under threat from News Corp. is The Financial Times in London, which is considered a British institution. 

The threat probably won't be one that will bring down the company domestically, as Dominic Ponsford, editor of Press Gazette says, "The FT is fairly secure in the sense that its main focus is the London financial market. Much of its recent growth has emerged from the huge boom in the City. But in terms of its ambition to become a global financial newspaper there is a problem."

A spokesman for Pearson disagrees the Ponsford saying, "It has taken the FT many years to change from being a UK paper to a global business newspaper. We are not complacent, but we think our strategy remains good. The FT will be a worthy competitor for the WSJ. We now sell more copies in the United States than we do in Britain. More than half of our advertising runs in all four editions."

The company may have some reason to swagger a little as the Financial Times had some solid figures come in as sales for the year grew by 0.72 percent year over year, reaching 444,763 daily sales for June. The parent of the company, Pearson, also performed well as it tripled its profits for the first half the year to £40m.
 
For the FT newspaper division, its profits grew by 28 percent, and enjoyed a 12 percent increase in subscriptions for their four printed editions (UK, US, Europe and Asia).
 
The danger for the Financial Times isn't so much on the domestic level, as we said, but the international level. As Ponsford adds: "Mr Murdoch will soak up losses for years to beat off competition. The FT can't do that. It has to deliver to Pearson's bottom line."

With Murdoch having the strength of a long-term perspective and willing to forego profits to win a market, this could eventually relegate the times to a much smaller market position internationally than it is trying to grow to.

As others have said, the deal for Dow Jones and the Wall Street Journal has suddenly made the Pearson empire look vulnerable. I think they're right.