Murdoch Inherits Dow Jones’ Local Properties

It would be a stretch to think that Rupert Murdoch was pining for more local services when he bid $5 billion for Dow Jones. Mostly, he wanted The Wall Street Journal (and will take MarketWatch).

Nevertheless, Dow Jones comes complete with some notable local properties. Its Ottaway newspaper division has 28 titles in the Northeast, Oregon and California, and has been a local advertising bulwark against cyclical downturns in national advertising. But my bet is that Murdoch will sell it to free up some cash.

More interesting is Dow Jones’ 40 percent share of Adicio, my neighbor in Carlsbad, which provides classifieds technology for newspapers and verticals, has a national ad network, and is Monster.com’s technology partner for media relationships. It isn’t hard to envision MySpace and the Fox TV stations using Adicio to do more with classifieds. In our view, expertise in listings, like Adicio’s, is something that is going to be valued across the media horizon.

Adicio VP Tony Lee thinks so too. “The impact should be very positive as we explore working with their many media properties globally, including more than 100 newspapers, all of the Fox TV station sites, MySpace and much more.”