Union's list of potential Dow Jones bidders came from reporters

Frank Ahrens of The Washington Post writes for Wednesday’s paper that the union representing business journalists at The Wall Street Journal, Barron’s Marketwatch and Dow Jones Newswires got its list of billionaires who might be interesting in bidding for parent company Dow Jones & Co. to thwart the offer made by News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch by asking its members for names.

Ahrens interviewed Steven Yount, the president of the Independent Association of Publishers’ Employees. He wrote, “Yount is leading the union while on leave from his job as a reporter for the Dow Jones radio network. He said he assembled his wish list of billionaires by asking reporters at the Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones, and by talking to business reporters at other unionized papers.

“‘I have the remarkable good fortune of working with reporters who work for the best financial paper in the country,’ Yount said. ‘You sit around and you say, ‘Give me a list of seven or eight guys who meet the criteria,’ and you also get their addresses and phone numbers.’

“Yount would not release the letter, but those who have seen it describe it as a ‘heartfelt appeal to people who share an interest in an independent Dow Jones.'”

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