The Class System at Dow Jones how class system favors Dow Jones By Peter Fearon Posted May 3, 2007 4:30 PM CDT Copied Co., publisher of The Wall Street Journal, said Tuesday, May 1, 2007 it has received an unsolicited bid from Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. to buy the company for $60 per share, or $5 billion. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, file) (Associated Press) See 5 more photos In rejecting Rupert Murdoch's offer for Dow Jones, the Bancroft family provides a textbook example of the case for—and against—dual class shares for media companies. With their shares carrying ten times the voting power of publicly traded shares, the family has the power to spurn a suitor it deems a poor match for the country's premiere financial newspaper. That may be good for the public, if not for owners of the publicly traded stock, MarketWatch observes. And there's a limit to how much they'll take before mutiny ensues. Just ask people over at the New York Times Co., where shareholders have recently escalated efforts to loosen the Sulzberger family's grip on the company. Read These Next NFL fans see same costly gaffe two weeks in a row. The Supreme Court delivered bad news to Ghislaine Maxwell. 'Subway surfing' in NYC claims 2 more young victims. Former NFL QB Mark Sanchez out of hospital, facing charges. See 5 more photos Report an error