Dow Jones & Co.’s refusal to act on News Corp.’s $5 billion takeover bid leaves Rupert Murdoch with the task of convincing members of the company’s controlling Bancroft family to sell.

“This throws the ball back to Murdoch,” a New York-based analyst with Benchmark Co., Ed Atorino, said. “Murdoch will probably raise his bid and deal with the family.”

Dow Jones, owner of the Wall Street Journal, said yesterday its board won’t act on News Corp.’s offer because the Bancroft family members who control 52% of the voting power oppose the bid. Members of the Ottaway family, with 6.2%, are also against a sale, the Wall Street Journal reported yesterday.

“The issue for Murdoch and the News people is to try to switch a few votes,” a mergers and acquisitions attorney at Dewey Ballantine in New York, Morton Pierce, said.

“Clearly, there’s sentiment within the family to sell. Now he’ll have to sway 8%.”

The Ottaways acquired the stake in Dow Jones in 1970 when the company bought their chain of community newspapers. Their shares bring the total opposing a sale to at least 58%, the Journal reported.

A director who represents the Bancrofts, Michael Elefante, informed the board about their decision. Mr. Murdoch told Fox News on May 1 that he plans to meet with family members in coming weeks to discuss his $60-a-share offer.

Dow Jones shares fell 73 cents to $55.27 at 1:43 p.m. yesterday in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. They surged 55% on May 1, when the bid was made public. Class A shares of New York-based News Corp., owner of Fox News, Fox Television, and Twentieth Century Fox, rose 1 cent to $21.60.

News Corp.’s offer for Dow Jones, which also owns Barron’s and Dow Jones Newswires, was 65% above the previous day’s closing stock price. Bancroft family members who control more than 50% of the voting power rejected the offer shortly after it became public.