Some Context on WSJ, Dow Jones, and the Bancroft Family
Any WSJ/Dow Jones acquisition involves inevitable discussion of the Bancroft family, which has owned the company for more than a hundred years, meanwhile consistently spurning buyout offers. For more, read this lengthy Ken Auletta piece from the New Yorker back in late 2003:The Journal, like two other great American newspapers, the New York Times and the Washington Post, is controlled by a family, and there is concern that the younger generation might want to sell the company. Unlike the Washington Post Company, which has diversified, and which expects to generate more revenue from its Kaplan unit, an educational-testing and teaching service, than from the Post, Dow Jones relies on the Journal for fifty-five per cent of its revenues and, in most years, seventy per cent of its profits. And Dow Jones, with revenues of about $1.5 billion, is just half the size of the New York Times Company. The Bancroft family has owned Dow Jones since the beginning of the twentieth century, and has steadfastly spurned overtures to sell, but its resistance may be softening. "Anything is possible--you never say never," said Leslie Hill, an American Airlines pilot and one of three Bancrofts who serve on the Dow Jones board, along with a family trustee, Roy Hammer. While the family has "a lot of pride" in its journalistic property, Hill says that family members sometimes disagree about financial issues. "I hear comments that they’re not happy with the company’s performance."Read more here. 1
