Murdoch meets with Bancroft family

New York -- Rupert Murdoch was in New York Monday to assure Bancroft family members The Wall Street Journal would remain editorially independent under his ownership.

The family -- which controls Journal parent Dow Jones & Co. and has made editorial independence and journalistic integrity its paramount concerns -- agreed last week to meet with the media baron after first rebuffing his $5 billion bid for the company in early May.

Neither Dow Jones nor Murdoch's News Corp. had any immediate comment on the meeting, held at the offices of the Bancrofts' New York attorneys Monday afternoon.

The get-together was "designed as part social gathering and part business meeting," the Journal reported prior to the meeting.

One major goal was to get the three Bancroft family members there -- Christopher Bancroft, Leslie Hill and Elizabeth Steele, who also are Dow Jones directors -- comfortable with Murdoch and his family, the Journal reported.

Murdoch's son James, chief executive officer of News Corp.'s British Sky Broadcasting Group PLC, was to join his father.

The Bancrofts were to be accompanied by Dow Jones Chairman Peter McPherson, family trustee Michael Elefante and attorney Martin Lipton.

Murdoch planned to do more listening than talking, the Journal reported.

Copyright 2007 by United Press International.