Categories: OLD Media Moves

Dow Jones union seeks alternatives to Murdoch bid

The union that represents business journalists at The Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones Newswires, Barron’s and Marketwatch said Monday that it has hired an advisory firm to help it seek alternatives to selling Dow Jones & Co. to News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch.

The statement said, “IAPE believes that the best safeguard to the independence and integrity of Dow Jones would be the continued stewardship of the Bancroft Family, but if the Family is persuaded that a sale of Dow Jones is necessary, IAPE believes that there are alternatives to Mr. Murdoch. We are hopeful that the Bancroft Family, with its long-standing commitment to the integrity of Dow Jones, will consider these alternatives.

“Working with our advisors, Ownership Associates of Cambridge, Massachusetts and with the resources of our affiliate union organizations, the Newspaper Guild and the Communications Workers of America, IAPE has begun reaching out to substantial investors that we believe could serve as partners in our effort to maintain the editorial independence of Dow Jones & Company and preserve the unquestioned journalistic integrity of all of its publications and products.”

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Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.