WSJ editorials defend Murdoch as new boss

By Robert MacMillan and Michele Gershberg

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Rupert Murdoch's deal to buy Dow Jones & Co Inc. won support on Wednesday in the editorial pages of his long-coveted Wall Street Journal, which defended its new boss and tasked him with upholding more than a century of journalistic principle.

The Journal said there was no doubt who was really in charge of Dow Jones despite a hard-won agreement with its controlling Bancroft family to create independent oversight of the news.

"This isn't intended to be some heat shield protecting Journal editors from their new owner," the Journal's editorial board wrote, referring to a five-member committee charged with protecting editorial independence. "We know enough about capitalism to know that there is no separating ownership and control."

The agreement for a $5.6 billion buyout, which includes debt, followed three months of wrangling between Murdoch's News Corp and the Bancroft family, who questioned the 76-year-old media mogul's intentions for one of the most prized U.S. business publications.

The Journal editorial board pointed to The New York Times and the Financial Times, two rivals likely to feel the pressure from a Murdoch-owned Dow Jones, as "especially aggressive" in doubting his ability to separate news coverage from his own interests.

"Readers can judge if the tears these papers and their writers claim to shed for the Journal's future are real, or of the crocodile variety," the editorial said.

Many Journal reporters and other Dow Jones employees had also opposed Murdoch's bid over fears that he would tarnish the Journal's image.

In an effort to ease such concerns, Journal publisher Gordon Crovitz also issued a letter published alongside the editorial piece.

"As owner, Mr. Murdoch will be fully accountable for the company," he wrote. "This is a strong protection for readers because it's the reputation of our journalism that drives so much of the value of Dow Jones."

A CHANGE OF DYNASTIES

News Corp announced the deal early on Wednesday, adding a powerful news outlet to its sprawling media empire that spans the Fox television stations, MySpace online social network and Times of London newspaper.

Murdoch has said that Dow Jones's news operations, which also include Dow Jones Newswires, the Barron's business weekly and MarketWatch financial site, would also fuel a new Fox business channel to be launched later this year. Dow Jones competes with Reuters Group Plc on financial news.

News Corp did not outline the future direction of Dow Jones and its top executives. In media interviews, Murdoch has raised such ideas as offering the Wall Street Journal for free online, building up its U.S. political coverage and aggressively recruiting the world's top business journalists.

Dow Jones shares rose 82 cents, or 1.4 percent, to $58.20 on the New York Stock Exchange while News Corp gained 12 cents, or 0.6 percent, at $21.00.

Bancroft family members holding about 37 percent of Dow Jones's voting power agreed on Tuesday to support the deal after failing to rouse competing bids. That represents more than half of the 64 percent voting shares held by the family.