Categories: OLD Media Moves

Murdoch says meeting was "constructive"

News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch said Monday afternoon that his meeting with the Bancroft family to discuss issues surrounding his offer to purchase Dow Jones & Co., the parent of The Wall Street Journal, was “constructive.”

Greg Miles and Leon Lazaroff of Bloomberg wrote, “‘We had a very long, constructive meeting and both sides want a way to consider both sides,’ Murdoch said in a brief interview after meeting with representatives of the Bancrofts.”

Later, they added, “Murdoch convinced Thomson Corp. in 1981 to sell him the Times of London, and won the backing of management with promises of editorial independence. Murdoch has made similar promises to the Bancrofts, who he is wooing with letters, flattery and assurances he won’t tamper with the Journal’s independence.

“‘He’ll try to show them he is a newspaper man at heart and convince them that he’ll do what’s right,’ said Richard Dorfman, managing director of Richard Alan Inc., an investment firm focusing on media companies based in New York. ‘He’s put on the charm offensive.'”

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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.

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