The race to buy Dow Jones (DJ)

First, it was Rupert Murdoch who offered $60 a shares for Dow Jones (NYSE: DJ), a premium of almost 80%. He has been rebuffed by the company's founding family, but they have finally agreed to a series of meetings with him to determine if The Wall Street Journal can keep its editorial independence.

Next came LA billionaire Ron Burkle. He made an unsuccessful attempt to buy the LA Times. Press reports are now circulating that he will join with labor unions at the publisher to make a bid.

And, yesterday Brian Tierney, who lead the successful effort to take Philadelphia's two dailies private, said he was interested in a possible offer.

What may be telling is that no other media company has made a bid for Dow Jones, although there is certainly a case to be made that it would fit well at McGraw-Hill (NYSE: MHP), which owns BusinessWeek, or Pearson (NYSE: PSO), which owns The Financial Times and part of The Economist.

It may be that media firms are worried that a company that only has about $125 million in operating income can't justify a price of $5 billion.

On paper, the media companies are right. The deal does not pay for itself.

Douglas A. McIntyre is a partner at 24/7 Wall St.