Last year, around the time of our first Future of Business Media Conference, News Corp had just acquired Dow Jones (NYSE: NWS). Now, at the second annual event, Robert Thomson, the editor-in-chief of the Dow Jones & Company and the managing editor of The Wall Street Journal, provided an update on the acquisition, including his current thinking on the debate over free vs paid content, investing in journalism, and globalization and the media. Some highlights from the Q&A:

—On free vs. paid content: Thomson: “A large portion of the journal is free, and where there’s a misunderstanding, it’s on what is commoditized and what isn’t. There’s a large chunk that isn’t commoditized.” When it comes to social networks, and being able to share content, Thomson said: “It depends on what you click on. More of it will be free and you’ll be able to share it, but at the premium end, that’s a subscription model.” When it comes to editorials, it should be free, he said. “I’m sure there’s brilliant commentators, but it’s commoditized. The random comment you get today, frankly, is a commodity.”

Much more after the jump

—On demand for premium news: Thomson: “Value is all relative.” With regional and local papers focusing their business coverage on personal finance, he asked: “where do people go for high-end international finance news?... We’ve been addressing that issue head on. We’ve seen 2 to 3 percent growth in print subscriptions, and frankly what we are trying to sell is high-end business news. There’s a lot of demand.” On the perception that the WSJ is moving away from business news to attract a bigger audience, he said: “They don’t read the paper.”

—On investing in journalism and globalization: “The problem with the Journal was that as a company, it was under invested in. If you asked which financial company would be best positioned to take advantage of globalization, you’d have to say Dow Jones. Clearly we wanted to create a framework where we could expand globally and digitally.” In China, he said they are growing 400 percent a year, and they are hiring 60 news wire journalists in India. “I think there’s a reason why we are being successful at this time.”
—On buying newspapers today: Thomson said that newspapers are the one area that can really capture the reader’s attention. Unlike the Internet, where people “click, click, click, and then move on,” a newspaper reader is much more intense, and might spend 35 minutes with a publication. “The prominence of the newspaper has in society is high profile, and you have to understand the value of it.”