Dollar Value of a Brand – Part II

Yesterday, media titan Rupert Murdoch took control of Dow Jones and its flagship publication, The Wall Street Journal. He paid $5 billion, which is about double the organization’s stock value. In an age where advertisers are shrinking and publication costs are rising, newspapers are no longer the cash cows of decades past. In fact, The Journal has been posting only marginal returns for years.

So what’s the draw? The answer, of course, is the brand.

Despite it’s financial woes, The Wall Street Journal is still considered “the” trusted name in business news. Murdoch (who is often painted as journalism’s Dick Cheney) is probably hoping that some of The Journal’s perceived integrity will not only improve his own beleaguered image, but allow him to launch a host of other business ventures as well.

Only time will tell if the return is worth the investment, but if you’re looking for proof of the inherent value of a brand, here are 2.5 billion reasons.