Now that he has The Wall Street Journal, what's next for Rupert Murdoch?

It's likely to make life more tenuous for the Financial Times, reports the Independent on Sunday.

Next on the agenda could be plans to leverage the Journal's name with the launch of a business channel under the aegis of Fox News, reports Ireland's Sunday Business Post. It will be a competitor to CNBC, operated by NBC (owned by General Electric). Just one little problem: the WSJ has a deal to provide material to CNBC until 2012, so Murdoch will have to work something out there.

Right now, there are journalists at the WSJ contemplating their future. And no doubt, the prospect of working for Fox might well speed up the exodus if and when that happens.

Significantly, a panel has been formed to protect the WSJ. And hey, one of the members of that panel, Nicholas Negroponte, received a $2.5 million donation from News Corporation. And he is expected to make objective neutral judgements. Yeah right!

Meanwhile, the newspaper's editor Paul Steiger says he is hopeful about life under Murdoch. Well, what else would he say?

Murdoch has given assurances that the paper's editorial integrity
will be safeguarded. But then, I remember working for the Herald and Weekly Times in Australia in 1987 when Murdoch took over. At the time, I was the chief political reporter at the Sun-New-Pictorial which was part of that stable. It was arguably the best newspaper in Australia. I remember how Murdoch gave all sorts of assurances when he took over. But within 12 months, the quality and independence of the paper had gone down the toilet. So I left. Based on my experience, I wouldn't hold much faith in Murdoch's assurances to safeguard the WSJ.

Completely unsentimental, he has too many agendas in play.