Murdoch's chances increase while Bancrofts stop work on proposal

Joseph Menn of The Los Angeles Times writes Wednesday that the decision by the Dow Jones & Co. board to take over negotiations to sell the company increases the odds that News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch will be successful in buying the parent of The Wall Street Journal.

Menn also wrote that the Bancroft family that controls Dow Jones has stopped working on a proposal to Murdoch that would protect the Journal from his interference.

Menn wrote, “The Bancroft family also will stop crafting a proposal to protect the editorial independence of the company’s flagship property, the Wall Street Journal, a person close to the Bancrofts confirmed. Debate over that proposal within the family had slowed talks.”

Later, he added, “The Bancrofts all had hoped to return to Murdoch with an ethics plan last week. But after a logjam developed and the nearly three dozen members of the fractious clan failed to unite around the plan, the four family representatives on the Dow Jones board turned over their draft to all the directors at a regular board meeting Wednesday.”

Read more here. The board is expected to fine-tune the plan and use it in its negotiations.