Murdoch Wins Dow Jones: Now What?

News Corp. appeased the firm and other family members by agreeing to assume the liabilities from their advisory fees to investment banks and attorneys who worked on the deal.

Ottaway, whose family controls 7% of Dow Jones's voting power, criticized the arrangement in a statement.

"It is ironic indeed for the Bancroft family to have to pay 30 shekels of silver to their investment bankers, and 30 shekels of gold to their corporate lawyers, for scaring some of them into betraying their 105-year family loyalty to Dow Jones independence," said Ottaway.

In the wake of such criticism, readers will be keeping a close eye on the Journal. The company said it will form a five-member special committee dedicated to "the continued journalistic and editorial integrity and independence of Dow Jones' publications and services."

Also, Murdoch has said he will keep the management team at Dow Jones in place, as well as the Journal's top editors.

"It is too early to know how or even whether News Corp. ownership might alter priorities or structures at Dow Jones," said Marcus Brauchli, the Journal's managing editor, in a note to the paper's newsroom. "Our current and likely future owners have given formal assurances, however, that the newsroom will retain its independence.

History shows Murdoch has made similar pledges to keep editors in place when he acquired newspapers in the past, and they were promises he did not keep. This time, they say, things will be different.

"Our readers must be able to trust that our facts are right," said Crovitz. "Livelihoods depend on it, and capital is deployed because of it. ... Any buyer of Dow Jones knows that the foundation of value is the trust of readers in the brands and the journalism."

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