According to Ad Age and other media sources, the Bancroft family, controlling shareholders of The Wall Street Journal’s parent company , Dow Jones & Co., is considering a $5 billion buyout offer from News Corp., the international media conglomerate controlled by Rupert Murdoch.
Reports claim the Journal’s newroom is buzzing with the news. And not in a good way.
The Independent Association of Publishers’ Employees, local 1096 of the Newspaper Guild/Communications Workers of America, had this to say in a statement:
“The staff, from top to bottom, opposes a Rupert Murdoch takeover of Dow Jones & Co. Since the early part of the twentieth century, the Bancroft family has stood up for the independence and quality of The Wall Street Journal and has built it into one of the world’s great newspapers.
“Mr. Murdoch has shown a willingness to crush quality and independence, and there is no reason to think he would handle Dow Jones or The Journal any differently. Despite our differences of opinion with current management, we strongly encourage the Bancrofts to continue to stand up for the institution’s independence, and to walk away from this offer.
Dow Jones also owns Barron’s and Market Watch. News Corp.’s only U.S. newspaper property right now is the New York Post, but the company owns several papers in England and Australia.