Dow Jones & Company's employees union has jumped into the bidding fray for the owner of the Wall Street Journal, calling for an alternative bidder to New Corporation chief executive Rupert Murdoch, news reports said Wednesday, according to dpa. The media mogul wants to buy the 100-year-old company for 5 billion dollars. The Independent Association of Publishers' Employees and its financial adviser, Ownership Association, have contacted Californian billionaire Ronald W Burkle and his private equity firm, Yucaipa Companies, in a search for other bidders, The New York Times said. Burkle has not shown any public desire to buy Dow Jones and the Wall Street Journal. Steven Yount, president of the 2,000-member Dow Jones union, said Ownership Association has prepared a counter offer to Murdoch's bid. "We gave them the job of putting together a counter offer," Yount told The Times. "They started by contacting a number of big potential partners and Ron Burkle was the first to say yes, he would be interested in working with us to put together a bid." Murdoch met with Bancroft family members, owners of Dow Jones, for the first time on Monday in Boston and called the lengthy talks "constructive." The meeting addressed issues about the editorial independence of the Wall Street Journal, and Murdoch's business activities in China. Other issues debated included ways to structure and maintain journalistic integrity and the establishment of an independent board to oversee the activities of Dow Jones.
