Towel Talk: Can the Bancrofts stop Murdoch?

Dow Jones & Company, Inc. (NYSE: DJ)'s Wall Street Journal (a.k.a., The Towel) occupies a unique spot in the media firmament. As I pointed out earlier in the year, it changed its format and now looks to me like a Holiday Inn bath towel. Towel Talk offers a perspective on its news and views.

It looks like The Towel is unable to resist the lure of News Corporation (ASX: NWS) owner Rupert Murdoch's $5 billion. AP reports that an initial agreement was reached on measures to ensure The Towel's editorial independence.

What exactly did they agree to? That's not clear but the article quotes an anonymous source which claims Murdoch and The Towel's board have "agreed in principle on ways to ensure the Journal's independence, with some items yet to be decided."

However, since The Towel's board took away the negotiating power from the Bancrofts, it is not at all clear that the Bancrofts will now gladly accept the details of this agreement in principle -- whatever those details might be.

And since the Bancrofts control the company, we can rest assured that our opportunity to agonize over every little twist and turn of this never ending media soap opera... will continue.

Peter Cohan is president of Peter S. Cohan & Associates, a management consulting and venture capital firm. He also teaches management at Babson College and edits The Cohan Letter. He has consulted to News Corp's CEO and has no financial interest in the other securities mentioned in this post