Dow Jones & Company, Inc. (NYSE: DJ)'s Wall Street Journal (a.k.a., Rupert's Rag, 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. And since it appears that News Corp (NYSE: NWS) has finally won over enough Bancrofts to take control, I am officially changing this column's name from Towel Talk to Rupert's Rag, which will continue to offer a perspective on its news and views.

Reuters reports on an internal memo at The Rag, which confirms that "The Bancroft family has accepted. Dow Jones will be part of News Corp."

Details of which Bancrofts accepted and which did not will no doubt be forthcoming. The New York Times (permalink) reports that family members and trusts representing about 32% of the shareholder vote indicated they would support Murdoch's offer.

And assuming the deal is done, it represents a big challenge to General Electric Company's (NYSE: GE) CNBC, which had been relying on the Rag for some of CNBC's on-air talent through a contract that extends through 2012. But with Murdoch wrapping himself in the Rag, coupled with the introduction of the Fox business news channel in October, the battle between the two will be taken up a notch.

Why did the Bancrofts succumb to Murdoch? They lived in a state of denial -- ignoring the way Bloomberg and Thomson Corp. (NYSE: TOC) took advantage of the opportunity to profit from digitizing financial data and analysis. And its patrician advertising sales culture contented itself with taking incoming orders and managing its declining advertising inventory, while its editorial side failed to solve the problem of publishing on newsprint as business advertising fled online.

For now there are surely many long faces among The Rag's reporters. And while its arch-conservative editorial page editors will feel right at home under Murdoch's rule, any citizen who is interested in objective coverage of China -- where Murdoch has significant business interests -- will certainly need to look elsewhere -- as will many Rag reporters for jobs.

Peter Cohan is president of Peter S. Cohan & Associates. He also teaches management at Babson College and edits The Cohan Letter. He owns GE shares and has no financial interest in News Corp.