Ottaway disappointed in Bancroft family decision

Jim Ottaway, a former senior vice president of Dow Jones & Co. who ran its community newspaper division, issued a statement Friday posted on The Wall Street Journal web site expressing disappointment in the Bancroft family’s decision to discuss selling the company to News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch.

Ottaway stated, “The best guarantee of the future editorial independence and unbiased news objectivity of Dow Jones and The Wall Street Journal is an owner who respects their brand name integrity.  It is hard to imagine Rupert Murdoch publishing The New York Post in midtown Manhattan, with all of his personal and political biases and business interests reflected every day, while publishing The Wall Street Journal in downtown Manhattan  with no interference whatsoever in its editorial positions or news coverage of his favorite politicians or business interests.

“If the Bancroft Family has decided that it may not be able to protect the independence of Dow Jones and its crown jewel,  The Wall Street Journal, as a stand alone company in a more competitive media future, then I hope they will refuse Murdoch’s offer and find a more trustworthy guardian of the high standards of journalism the family has heroically protected for 100 years.

“I am encouraged by the family statement of ‘its receptivity to other options that might achieve the same overarching objective.’  There must be better  options than selling Dow Jones to News Corp.  There must be a better buyer for the long term than News Corp. with its uncertain management succession after Rupert Murdoch, now 76, retires or dies.”

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