News Corp. puts in a bid for Dow Jones — Oh no!!

The Wall Street Journal is reporting today that News Corp. has put in an unsolicited bid for Dow Jones & Co., the parent company of the newspaper. News Corp. is run by Australian mogul Rupert Murdoch and has the Fox News Channel among many other media properties.

News Corp’s bid is rich. They’re offering $60 a share for Dow Jones, which has been trading lately around $35. Dow Jones is one of the few last family-owned media companies.

Let me just tell you, this is awful news. The Wall Street Journal is one of the finest newspapers out there. I’ve been reading it since high school. Their editorial page is known for being conservative, but it’s one of the finest journalistic enterprises out there. There is no doubt that the quality of reportage that readers have expected from the WSJ would suffer. Murdoch runs his news operations very lean and very mean.

My subscription to the Wall Street Journal, which includes the WSJ Online, is up for renewal in July. Even after all of these years reading the newspaper, I can easily say that I will let my subscription lapse if the paper falls into Rupert Murdoch’s hands.

Let’s hope the Bancroft family make the right decision. Taking this Murdoch money would line their pockets — the bid is $5 billion in total — but it would destroy one of America’s finest institutions.