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Continuing Coverage of the Dow Jones Story

With General Electric (GE) and Pearson PLC dropping out of the race for Dow Jones & Co. (DJ), it looks like there's nothing to stop Rupert Murdoch from moving ahead to victory. The offer by former MySpace owner Brad Greenspan won't be taken seriously by the board.

With the board now having negotiating power transferred to them, they have started to work on the final sticking point of the deal: editorial independence. The board still includes three members of the Bancroft family, along with a family trustee.

The family says that transferring authority to the board shouldn't be looked on as softening their stance, but rather as strengthening it concerning editorial independence.

They are working up a five-point plan to present to Murdoch (showing he's the only one they're really considering) before the talks about his $5 billion bid for the company. The board is now looking over the draft proposals the family drew up for them.

I think the board knows that there is only so far they're going to be able to go with this. Murdoch has alreay rightfully said that he' not going to pay $5 billion for the company and have someone else run it by proxy - nobody would be willing to do that.

So other than showing they're putting up a valient fight on behalf of the Dow Jones people, I'm not sure what they hope to accomplish by this.

Even though Murdoch has used sensationalism in the past to build his media empire, I think with Dow Jones and their business properties, there's a built-in protection in that people want serious, helpful, relevant, accurate information, not hyped-up stories about celebrities or other nonsense.

Of course there will always be some of that in any news publication, but overall it wouldn't be in the best interests of News Corp. (NWS-A) or Rupert Murdoch to make the Wall Street Journal into some type of tabloid. That in itself will provide some protection no matter what the outcomes are.

But in reference to the draft being written by the Dow Jones board, it's hard to know whether, depending on what the final version says, it will be legally enforceable or not. The past shows in Murdoch's dealings the he and is lawyers are expert in this contractual matters. He's not going to put himself under their thumbs in any way.

That's the reason I'm wondering why they continue to pursue that avenue. If they were concerned about these things, they should have been implenting them before they were going to be bought, not because of it.

Related Coverage:

General Electric and Pearson PLC Drop out of Dow Jones Sweepstakes

Bancrofts Out of the Dow Jones Negotiations - Board Takes Over

General Electric, Pearson PLC Consortium to Buy Dow Jones Already Under Fire

Bancrofts Said to be Readying Proposal for Special Board

Another Dow Jones Suitor Bites the Dust

More Suitors for Dow Jones than Men Saying They were Father of Anna Nicole Smith's Baby

Brian Tierney Interested in Dow Jones

Union for Dow Jones Employees Claims Ron Burkle Joined Them to Battle Rupert Murdoch

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