Rupert Murdoch’s empire appears to be expanding.
The Bancroft family, which controls a majority of voting shares of Dow Jones stock, appears ready to sell to Murdoch’s News Corp., handing the Australian one of the nation’s biggest and most important newspapers — along with its burgeoning online presence.
The sale, which is not official, raises serious questions about what will happen to the Journal’s journalistic reputation in the coming years — a question admirably explored by former Journal staffer Dean Starkman, now of the Columbia Journalism Review. (I’ll leave you to explore his blog for a sense of why this sale matters for journalism.)
There is the personal side of this for me — my wife works at Dow Jones and no one knows how the sale will affect the work force.
And there is the third issue: What happens to the South Brunswick site? Dow Jones is one of the township’s largest taxpayers — itis slated to pay $3.1 million in 2007 and accounts for about 2.1 percent of all tax revenue coming into the township. If the use of the property changes, could the tax assessment change? And by how much? If the Dow Jones tax bill is reduced by $375,000, for instance, that could bump the tax rate up by about a penny, which would cost the average taxpayer in town about $20.
My hope — for a lot of reasons — is that Murdoch opts to maintain the South Brunswick facility, possibly even expanding the use of the buildings and keeping the jobs in town.
Unfortunately, we are not likely to know how this shakes out until the official vote takes place and Murdoch has a chance to review his options.
South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick
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Hank Kalet 