Dow Jones Shares Should Stand Tall

Investors see no growth potential in newspapers, but The Journal remains the most influential financial news source in the world. Its content is valuable enough to its audience that it has been able to charge a subscription fee for access to its Web site, and its parent company has been a leader among newspaper publishers in positioning itself for a digital future.

Dow Jones lends instant credibility to its owner -- credibility that Murdoch craves to use alongside the tabloid sensationalism of his New York Post and the right-wing-tilted cable news juggernaut, Fox News. The Journal is the five-star restaurant of the news business while News Corp. is the fast-food king, and that's precisely why the opposition in the Bancroft family exists.

"News Corp. is not held in the same journalistic esteem as Dow Jones," says Ken Marlin, managing partner with Marlin & Associates, an investment bank focusing on media and technology. "[The Bancrofts] view themselves not as owners but as caretakers of a tradition and a trust that benefits society and democracy. They are the guardians keeping the barbarians from the gate. That's precisely why they set up this two-tiered ownership structure."

While the Bancroft family can block this deal for now, in a decade from now, the opposition's majority likely will be gone if the current trends prevail.

"It's very difficult for family-maintained businesses to maintain control from generation to generation," says Marlin. "They will have to find a way to instill the idea in the younger members of their family that they're the caretakers of this sacred trust. Otherwise, it becomes a question of at what price does the money become worth more than that."