Dow Jones CEO Almar Latour on AI, press freedom, and the future of news
Today, I’m talking with Almar Latour, who is the publisher of The Wall Street Journal and CEO of its parent company Dow Jones, which you can think of as a huge research and data provider for companies of all sizes. Dow Jones itself is part of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp.
Latour is a fascinating guy. He started as a news assistant at the Journal in the ’90s, spent time as a tech reporter, and eventually rose through the ranks to become CEO in 2020, putting him in charge of how everything makes money.
And if you’ve been paying attention, you know it’s a tough time to be making money in the news business, especially the paid news business. In addition to competing with the flood of free content on various social and streaming platforms, the industry is also facing new challenges like fights about copyright and AI and battles with the Trump administration, which has been pushing hard to shut down critical reporting and limit press freedom.
Related Knowledge Center: State of the business model
The traditional journalism business model has long since collapsed, and news organizations have shrunk or disappeared entirely. While a number of promising experiments are under way, the public has not shown a willingness to buy what news organizations are selling.