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Bancrofts Send Lawyers Back To Drawing Board

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Jun 15, 2007 

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Sarah Novotny  |

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Bancrofts Send Lawyers Back To Drawing Board

The Bancroft family, who control the Dow Jones & Co. has rejected a plan prepared by its lawyers at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz in New York and Hemenway & Barnes in Boston. The Bancrofts were advised to seek stronger guarentees of editorial independence as one of the conditions of accepting Rupert Murdoch’s offer and selling to News Corp.

The plan would allow a panel elected by family members, to have sole power to hire and fire The Wall Street Journal’s top editors who would have the same power over their subordinates. The panel also has thepower to name its own successors which would protect editorial control from Murdoch.

The family would have chosen two of the board members and jointly chosen the remaining three with News Corp. Also, this panel would have some say in newsroom budgets and have control over a two year moratorium on cuts in the news staff.

There has been speculation that the Bancrofts did not believe the new plan went far enough to protect The Journal. “Reflecting the continuing and extensive input of family members, the draft proposal as of today differs substantially in multiple respects from the draft proposal as it stood yesterday,” a family spokesman said last night. “No proposal will be sent to News Corporation until it has achieved consensus among the family members and their advisers.”

Although seriously considering Murdoch’s $60-a-share offer, the family remains steadfast in protecting the integrity of The Journal, the darling of the Dow Jones umbrella properties. Even though the proposed plan would allow the Bancrofts to have two seats on the News Corp. board, historically Murdoch has rarely been refuted in his chocies of management.

Many critics say that there is no way to be certain that Murdoch will not gain editorial control, but the Bancroft family is attempting to be the first to prove them wrong.

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