Dow Jones board member resigns in protest

Dow Jones & Co. board member Dieter von Holtzbrinck resigned his position Thursday to protest the board’s vote to recommend the sale of the company to News Corp., according to a story from The Wall Street Journal’s Sarah Ellison and Shira Ovide.

Von Holtzbrinck abstained from the vote.

Ellison and Ovide wrote, “Dow Jones disclosed Mr. von Holtzbrinck’s resignation in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

“‘Listening to our lawyers, one has to vote for a deal which is in the best [financial] interest for the shareholders,’ Mr. von Holtzbrinck said, ‘except if one can prove that such deal bears risk for the company that overcompensate the financial profits.’

“Mr. von Holtzbrinck said his concerns were based on News Corp.’s business practices and the concerns raised by other shareholders, such as Jim Ottaway, who has been an outspoken critic of News Corp. chairman Rupert Murdoch. ‘I cannot prove that my worries are right,’ he wrote. ‘I can only refer to News Corp. business practices in the past, can only refer to Jim Ottaway’s article in the Journal, etc.’

“He also said that he didn’t believe that a ‘special committee’ on editorial independence would protect Dow Jones’s journalistic integrity. Dow Jones and News Corp. have agreed on a set of editorial principles to protect Dow Jones’s independence in the event of a takeover by News Corp. Those principles include a 5-member committee that would serve as a buffer between News Corp. management and Dow Jones’s editorial staff.”

Read more here.