Dow Jones & Company's (NYSE: DJ) 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 footprint and now looks to me like a Holiday Inn bath towel. Towel Talk offers a perspective on its news and views.

The Towel's board decided not to act on News Corp.'s (NYSE: NWS) $5 billion bid. That's because it has divided the 34 members of the Bancroft family which owns its Class B shares which have 10 times the voting power of the Class A shares.

Just how important is the Bancroft family and how divided is it? The Bancrofts own 24.7% of shares outstanding but hold 64.2% of the voting power. But yesterday The Towel said it had been told by a Bancroft representative that family members and their trusts "constituting slightly more than 50% of the outstanding voting power of Dow Jones" would vote against the offer. The statement indicates that those in opposition represent about 80% of the Bancrofts' voting power.

With The Towel's stock up 22 cents in early morning trading, it looks like investors are optimistic that Murdoch will be able to break the logjam within the family. Maybe that's because of talk that he could afford to offer $70 a share.

Stay tuned -- the media loves nothing more than admiring itself in the mirror so this story will be a hot topic until the deal is done.

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 done consulting work for News Corp's Chairman and CEO and has no financial interest in the securities mentioned in this post.