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An insider’s look at the decline of Dow Jones

How did the once-mighty Dow Jones, publisher of the Wall Street Journal, end up in Rupert Murdoch’s takeover plans?

Here’s part of the story, from former Journal reporter Dean Starkman:

…soon after I arrived in 1996, [Publisher Peter] Kann’s board announced a $650 million plan to fix Telerate, internally called “Rolling Thunder,” which inevitably became known as “Rolling Blunder,” and which executives quoted in Fortune described variously as “schizophrenic,” “total confusion,” and worse. Customers complained that using “Dow Jones Markets” products was like buying a car you had to assemble yourself.

Starkman, who worked at the Journal from 1996 to 2004, chronicles the Dow Jones “tragedy” at CJR Daily.