Possible members of a Dow Jones independent editorial board

Richard Perez-Pena of The New York Times writes for Thursday’s paper that the issue of an independent board to oversee the editorial operations of The Wall Street Journal remains the key issue in whether its parent company, Dow Jones & Co., gets sold to News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch.

The Bancroft family that controls Dow Jones hasn’t discussed who they’d like to be on such a board, but others have, writes Perez-Pena.

He wrote, “The family has not yet debated whom they might name to an editorial control board, according to family members — they say it is premature until they have a deal with Mr. Murdoch — but others close to them have.

“Family advisers say that the obvious approach would be to choose some of the biggest names in American journalism from outside Dow Jones, or respected figures from within the company, or both — and to focus on retirees who no longer have a financial or competitive stake in the selection.

“Some of the names that have been floated by advisers include Paul E. Steiger, the former managing editor who is now The Journal’s editor at large, and Peter R. Kann, the former star reporter who became chief executive and chairman of Dow Jones. Others include former top editors of major newspapers, like John Carroll of The Los Angeles Times and The Baltimore Sun, Benjamin C. Bradlee of The Washington Post and Joseph Lelyveld of The New York Times. Others have suggested editorialists or columnists who would reflect something of The Journal’s editorial page outlook, like the former Times columnist William Safire.”

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