Murdoch Gets Meeting With Dow Jones

Dow Jones & Co.’s controlling Bancroft family reversed course and said it plans to meet with Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. to discuss his $5 billion bid for the publisher of the Wall Street Journal. “The family has reached consensus that the mission of Dow Jones may be better accomplished in combination or collaboration with another organization which may include News Corp.,” the Bancrofts said in a statement on the Journal’s Web site.The decision, coming after a detailed review of Dow Jones’s prospects, marks a reversal of the family’s position since Mr. Murdoch announced his $60-a-share bid on May 1. The Bancrofts hold about 64% of the voting power at Dow Jones, which also owns Barron’s, and had said family members representing 52% of the votes opposed Mr. Murdoch.The Bancrofts will also consider other bidders and options for the company, the statement said. New York-based Dow Jones had previously said its board wouldn’t consider Mr. Murdoch’s offer because of the family’s opposition.“We’re grateful to the Bancroft family for agreeing to our suggestion of a meeting and we look forward to it,” a News Corp. spokesman, Andrew Butcher, said in an e-mailed statement. He declined further comment.Dow Jones spokesman Howard Hoffman said the company declined to comment on the Bancroft’s statement.Mr. Murdoch, 76, offered a 65% premium to Dow Jones’s April 30 closing stock price. He has sought to assuage concerns over the editorial independence of the Wall Street Journal by offering the Bancrofts a seat on News Corp.’s board and pledging to set up an autonomous panel to oversee the newspaper.Such a board, in place at News Corp.’s Times of London, would ensure the hiring and firing of Wall Street Journal’s editor and managing editor would be made with the approval of the panel’s directors. It would also ensure any dispute between editors and management is arbitrated.Shares of Dow Jones jumped 9.2% in extended trading to $58.25. They rose 46 cents to $53.31 in regular New York Stock Exchange composite trading before the Bancroft statement was issued and have gained 40% this year.Class A shares of News Corp., owner of the Fox network, Fox film studios and 170 newspapers worldwide, fell 34 cents to $22.09 in regular trading. They have climbed 2.8% this year.Bancroft family members cited concern over the Wall Street Journal’s independence as a factor in their deliberations.“The family has advised the company’s board that it intends to meet with News Corp. to determine whether, in the context of the current or any modified News Corp. proposal, it will be possible to ensure the level of commitment to editorial independence, integrity, and journalistic freedom that is the hallmark of Dow Jones,” the statement said.The Bancrofts were joined in their earlier opposition by the Ottaway family, which controls 6.2% of Dow Jones through the sale of a community newspaper chain to Dow Jones in 1970.In the letter on the Journal Web site on May 6, James Ottaway said Mr. Murdoch won’t uphold Dow Jones’s journalistic traditions.“Rupert Murdoch comes from a very different tradition of Australian-British media ownership and editorial practice in which he has for a long time expressed his personal, political and business biases through his newspapers and television channels,” Mr. Ottaway said.

Murdoch Gets Meeting With Dow Jones

Murdoch Gets Meeting With Dow Jones

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