Timing is Everything: Bancrofts May Be Only Ones Making Good on Dow Jones Sale

Sulzbergers take note! Looks like a year later the only people benefiting from the Dow Jones sale are the Bancrofts. Of course one of the reasons for this is that (as we are all painfully aware) in the months following that sale the bottom has come out on the print industry, meaning, had the Bancrofts kept the company the value of it now would be significantly less that it was 12 months ago. A fact News Corp. is painfully aware of. Per today’s BreakingViews.com column in the Times:

The Dow Jones transaction saddled the News Corporation with greater exposure to newspapers and the financial industry, just as both entered their darkest hours. Mr. Murdoch’s shareholders — among whom he and his family, with a 38 percent stake, are the biggest — are paying the price. Shares of the News Corporation have plunged 61 percent in the last year.

The lesson? Probably if the Sulzbergers were looking to get out they should have done so before now. Of course, never say never. Over at SpliceToday founder Russ Smith is wagering that by December 31 of next year the New York Times will have been sold. Anyone care to take him up on that?

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