From the New York Times:

The News Corporation, controlled by Rupert Murdoch, and advisers for Dow Jones and its controlling Bancroft family were close last night to agreeing on terms designed to protect The Wall Street Journal’s newsroom independence if the company accepts a takeover bid from Mr. Murdoch, according to several people briefed on the talks.

However, these people cautioned that a deal between Mr. Murdoch and the Bancrofts’ advisers did not mean that either the Dow Jones board or the family, which controls 64 percent of the shareholder votes, would approve the arrangement.

If an agreement on newsroom independence were to be made by the Dow Jones board, the News Corporation and the Bancroft family, the only barrier standing in the way of Mr. Murdoch’s control of The Wall Street Journal would be the selling price.

Mr. Murdoch has offered $60 a share for Dow Jones, which he has long wanted to add to his global media empire, and promises that he will not meddle in the news pages. But the Bancroft family, which has controlled the company for more than 100 years, is wary of his reputation for sensationalism and for interfering in the news operations of his media companies for his own political or financial ends.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Economics, Politics

1. Bob Lee wrote: The WSJ is very “left-leaning”. Their editorial pages could use some changes. I stopped getting it for this reason. bl June 25, 4:01 pm | [comment link]

2. Tom Roberts wrote: Hunh? Absolutely or relatively? I seem to recall a series of Micah Morrison editorials about everything the former Governor of Arkansas did from the early eighties onwards, that when compiled would only fit on a 9 volume set or a CD. Left leaning indeed. In the case of WJC, with left leaning friends like the WSJ, who would need a “vast right wing conspiracy”? June 26, 10:04 pm | [comment link]

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