Bancrofts to sell their share of Dow Jones & Co.?
News Corp. might soon control Dow Jones & Co., after more than a century of its independence.The Bancrofts, who own the voting-majority stake of the company, have indicated that they would consider selling their share to Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. The Bancroft family also said that it would look at offers from other bidders.
In a statement, the Bancrofts said of the matter: “The family has reached consensus that the mission of Dow Jones may be better accomplished in combination or collaboration with another organization, which may include News Corporation.”
The Bancrofts have said that they will meet with Murdoch and other News Corp. representatives to discuss ways to keep the editorial independence of Dow Jones.
Although the Bancrofts said they will look into other offers, Ed Atorino, analyst at Benchmark Co., said: “I think they're facing the reality of the situation -- that this is a one-time-only event.”
Some believe, however, that the sale is not so clear-cut. John Morton, veteran U.S. newspaper analyst says: “I don't think this is a capitulation. This is a family and I suspect that most of the majority of the family that opposes the Murdoch bid has some obligation to resolve their concerns. I can't envision a scenario in which the family essentially gives up control. They might bring in a partner but not a controlling partner."
Others have indicated the possibility of the Bancrofts handing over some of their share in Dow Jones & Co., but not enough to give News Corp. control over it.
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Use of keywords is an old secret... It's not only the use of these words but their placement (top of page, etc.) and tagging (e.g. headline, etc.) all make a difference.
The most important placement for critical keywords are the meta-tags (keyword, description, title, etc.). And to ensure that normal page content is indexed properly, the website has to have W3C compatible HTML coding!
Good luck to all search-engine-friendly newspaper!
Its all very sad in a way - no more witty headlines, tantalising first paragraph storytelling. etc. Mechanisation means a craft is lost................
It is interesting that Newspapers are training their journalists in writing for the Search Engines. Using the relevant keywords may help a little with some Search Engines but Google depends mostly on Off Page Optimisation - links!
It is the links to the article and especially the text near these links which will count with Google.
This story speaks to a some of the compelling issues in the strained courtship between the Bancroft family members, their advisors and Rupert Murdoch. But it misses one important question: is Dow Jones & Company Inc. actually undervalued by investors? My analysis suggests the answer is yes. Under Mr. Murdoch's leadership DJ may even be worth $75 a share. Check out "Dow Jones: Anomaly or Hidden Value" at http://www.customersandcapital.com