The Bancroft family, who through a dual-class share structure control 64.2% of Dow Jones & Co. (NYSE: DJ) votes, agreed to meet with Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. (NYSE: NWS) about his unsolicited $5.6 billion bid for the company.

This will be music to shareholders' ears as the Bancrofts had initially rejected News Corp.'s offer exactly one month ago. It has been widely speculated that the bid for the company was too substantial to not seriously consider as it represented a 65% premium over the share price at the time.

Critics of the proposed buyout warn that the Wall Street Journal, the centerpiece of Dow Jones & Co.'s holdings and certainly Murdoch's most coveted prize in the deal, would suffer from a decline in the quality and neutrality of the writing. In fact, placing journalistic integrity before profits, if necessary, is part of the reason Dow Jones & Co. has a dual-class share structure that allows the Bancrofts to control its fate.

Michael B. Elefante, a director of Dow Jones & Co. and a representative of the Bancrofts, said in a statement that the meeting with News Corp. will explore if "it will be possible to ensure the level of commitment to editorial independence, integrity and journalistic that is the hallmark of Dow Jones."

Editorial independence aside, Dow Jones & Co. is suffering from the same problems ailing the entire newspaper industry as readership and thus advertising slows or declines. As Ed Atorino, an analyst at Benchmark Co., said, "I think [the Bancrofts] are facing the reality of the situation -- that this [bid] is a one-time-only event." See, money talks.

Dow Jones & Co. is soaring to nearly $61 a share on the news, while News Corp. is up a slight .72%.

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