Jim Ottaway Jr., opposes News Corp.'s $5 billion buyout bid

Televisionpoint.com Correspondent
Former Dow Jones & Co. Inc. executive Jim Ottaway Jr., whose family is one of the publisher's largest shareholders, said he opposes News Corp.'s $5 billion buyout bid, in part because it would cost The Wall Street Journal its editorial integrity.

Ottaway's statement, published on The Wall Street Journal's Web site on Sunday, said the sale to News Corp. and its chief executive, Rupert Murdoch, would damage Dow Jones' reputation for accurate, fair, objective and reliable business news reporting.

"Murdoch promises editorial independence and no interference in news judgments if he were owner of Dow Jones, He has made these easy promises of an eager buyer in the past, but not always kept them." Ottaway wrote.

Ottaway's is the latest in a series of statements to come from Wall Street Journal reporters and the union that represents Dow Jones employees that opposes Murdoch's $60 per share offer for the company, which also publishes Barron's and the Marketwatch.com financial news Web site.

Dow Jones also runs Dow Jones Newswires, which competes with Reuters Group Plc in publishing financial news. The Ottaway family owns 6.2 percent of Dow Jones' Class B stock, which gives them more voting rights than most shareholders.

The Ottaway unit of Dow Jones runs several daily newspapers, including The Standard-Times in New Bedford, Massachusetts, and the Ashland Daily Tidings in Oregon.

The majority of the Bancroft family which controls Dow Jones through its own Class B shares, also opposes the bid, which came at a 65-percent premium to the stock's closing price on Monday. Dow Jones disclosed the offer on Tuesday.

Ottaway criticized Murdoch's editorial principles, saying "he has for a long time expressed his personal, political and business biases through his newspapers and television channels."

"We see this every day here in America in his New York Post which regularly runs biased news stories and headlines supporting his friends, political candidates and public policies, and attacks people he personally opposes," Ottaway wrote.

"His Fox TV News Channel, run by Roger Ailes, a former Republican party strategist, is a unique example in American broadcasting in which one man's political opinions have become the editorial and news policy of a major national news channel."

Ottaway also said that when Murdoch's business and news interests conflict, "his business interests usually prevail."

Another fear Ottaway expressed is what happens once Murdoch no longer runs News Corp. Murdoch has promised in published reports to honor Dow Jones's editorial integrity, but Ottaway said that may not hold true in the future.

"And since he is 76 years old, his promises, no matter how sincere, will not last very long. Who will keep his promises in the future? Rupert Murdoch is a remarkably vigorous man, but he is not immortal," Ottaway wrote.

"There is no clear News Corp. management succession, a history of disagreements with his sons, and inevitable future arguments over ownership control and management influence among his children." said Ottaway.