Dow Jones Board Reaches Deal With Murdoch

DOW JONES BOARD REACHES DEAL WITH MURDOCH
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Andrew Ross Sorkin & Richard Siklos]
It’s now down to the Bancrofts. After months of back-and-forth negotiations, the board of Dow Jones voted last night in favor of recommending a tentative deal to sell the publisher of The Wall Street Journal for $5 billion to Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation. The final decision will be made by Dow Jones’s fractious controlling family, the Bancrofts, which could still seek to scuttle the sale, people who have spoken with family members said. That point was underscored by the fact that two of the four Bancroft family members on the board did not take part in the vote.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/18/business/media/18dow.html
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* Dow Jones set to OK Murdoch bid
http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/money/20070718/6b_dj_18.art.htm

* Dow Jones board backs Murdoch bid
http://www.latimes.com/business/printedition/la-fi-dowjones18jul18,1,3390981.story?coll=la-headlines-pe-business

* Murdoch's Deal for WSJ Could Be an Opportunity for Rivals
[SOURCE: AdAge, AUTHOR: Nat Ives]
If News Corp. closes a deal to buy Dow Jones and its crown jewel, The Wall Street Journal, it won't just complicate life for all the competition out there -- it may create some opportunities as well. Given all the very public concern over Rupert Murdoch's potential to meddle in The Journal's news operations, why shouldn't rivals try to claim the mantle of your independent business-news source? "If people are going to be concerned about the quality and independence of The Journal, that plays quite well for us," said Paul Rossi, publisher for North America at The Economist. "Do readers look to The Wall Street Journal in a different light, do they start to look for different sources? That could be an opportunity for us. Do advertisers think the market's changed somehow? That could be an opportunity."
http://adage.com/mediaworks/article?article_id=119333

* Murdoch's Journal Is Bad News
"Rupert Murdoch's takeover of the Wall Street Journal may not be illegal, but it's certainly wrong. The cost of giving one company — and one man — this much media power is simply too high."
http://www.freepress.net/press/release.php?id=253