Video Q&A: 'War at The Wall Street Journal' Author Sarah Ellison

There's no bigger story on the media beat these days than Rupert Murdoch's ongoing makeover of The Wall Street Journal and the role that it plays in his broader ambitions: to crush The New York Times, to remake the Internet as a place where readers pay for news, to build News Corp. (NWS) into a dynasty that will endure for generations.

Sarah Ellison had the ultimate insider's view of that makeover -- first, as a longtime reporter at the Journal, and then as an author who got unprecedented access to Murdoch and other News Corp. and Dow Jones executives in order to chronicle the process. The result is War at the Wall Street Journal: Inside the Struggle to Control an American Business Empire.

Ellison came by DailyFinance's offices recently to talk about what it was like having a ringside seat to Murdoch's intrigues, why she thinks the Bancroft family would have sold Dow Jones for even less than Murdoch paid, and whether he is forcing his political views into the news pages.