Flush From Avatar, Murdoch Talks Tough Re: Ipads and Paywalls

You've got to hand it to Rupert Murdoch. The Australian-born, British and U.S.-based media mogul's empire is now so vast that he can squeeze a quarter-billion-dollar's worth of profits out of any random quarter, it seems, which is exactly what his News Corp. (NWSA) did in Q-4, 2009.

Furthermore, Murdoch is poised to collect even more during this quarter, courtesy of the most successful film of all time, Avatar, which was produced by his Twentieth Century Fox subsidiary.

Perhaps that partially explains the outspoken billionaire's swagger during his earnings call this week when he was quoted as saying, among other things, "Content is not just king, it is the emperor of all things digital."

Although he was typically evasive about exactly when he intends to erect his long-promised paywall around all of his newspaper sites' content, he did say that he is moving closer to that moment.

Murdoch also took the opportunity to assail Apple's much-hyped iPad and Amazon's Kindle e-reader devices, calling them "empty vessels" that would remain "unloved and unsold" without content from companies like his.

Almost overlooked in all of this bluster was a surprisingly good quarterly performance by News Corp.'s newspapers, including the Wall Street Journal, even without any effective paywalls around most of their content -- yet.

Related BNET link:
As Murdoch and Sulzberger Dream of Paywalls, Consider Poor Newsday's Example