FT on DJ

Sign up for The Media Today, CJR’s daily newsletter.

We suspect the Financial Times has an advantage covering the Bancrofts–maybe everyone went to the same schools, or something–but the Peach One has been doing a good job on the comings and goings of the controlling family of The Wall Street Journal‘s parent, Dow Jones & Co. The family must decide whether to sell the company to News Corp. or continue to hold the shares while collecting out-sized dividends. If the goal is upholding journalistic standards, The Audit says: Don’t do us any favors, old beans. You’ve done quite enough, really. How about selling to a patient investor who doesn’t need income now and knows, as Murdoch clearly does, what the Journal’s going to be worth in five or ten years?

Has America ever needed a media defender more than now? Help us by joining CJR today.

Dean Starkman , CJR’s Kingsford Capital Fellow, runs The Audit, CJR.org’s business desk. Megan McGinley, a CJR intern, and Elinore Longobardi, an Audit staff writer, provided research. This story and the two following were supported with a grant from the Investigative Fund of The Nation Institute, for which we are deeply grateful.