Murdoch: 'Tremendous values' of Dow Jones will be preserved
By Leah McBride Mensching, Friday 14 December 2007 at 21:51 :: Media Ownership :: #982 :: rss
As News Corporation Chairman Rupert Murdoch finally achieved ownership of Dow Jones & Co. and its flagship paper the Wall Street Journal Thursday, he later visited the Dow Jones head office and, standing atop four boxes of copying paper, reassured journalists that the “tremendous values” at Dow Jones will be preserved under new ownership.
“If anything, you will find us trying to set a higher bar,” he said, according to a report by The Australian.
Murdoch's $5.16 billion takeover of the Journal's owner ends more than 100 years of ownership by the Bancroft family. Just under 60.3 percent of Dow Jones investors approved of Murdoch's takeover, while 78 percent of common shares and 54 percent of super-voting shares (held mostly by the Bancroft family) voted in favour of the deal, according to The Australian, also owned by News Corp.
Murdoch said in an exclusive interview with Fox News that “there was a little hostility ... But the great body of people there love to see someone coming in, saying 'Hey, we want to develop this business, not break it up and sell it off or cut it down.'”
At Dow Jones, Murdoch acknowledged that “change is often difficult or creates nervousness,” but that he and News Corp. “know and understand the tremendous values of Dow Jones and, particularly, of course, of the Wall Street Journal and the very high bar you have set yourselves,” according to a report by the Wall Street Journal, via a MediaInfoCenter posting.
In his visit to the company's downtown Manhattan headquarters, Murdoch also brought Leslie Hinton, the newly appointed CEO of Dow Jones, and Robert Thomson, the Journal's new publisher. Hinton has been with News Corp. for 40 years, while Thomson is the former editor of the Times of London.
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