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News Corp intends to nominate Natalie Bancroft, a member of the family that is selling Dow Jones for US$5.6 billion ($7 billion), to its board, two sources familiar with the matter said yesterday.
The Wall Street Journal revealed the news by publishing a series of email exchanges written by Bancroft family members since mid-July, when it was debating whether to accept News Corp's offer. "While News Corp is aware that other members of the family received more support from within the family, News Corp has interviewed Natalie and elected to nominate her," reads a letter from Dow Jones board members.
"We trust that Natalie will endeavor to represent effectively the family's interests on the News Corp board."
Natalie is the daughter of Hugh Bancroft III, who would only say that she has lived in Geneva, Switzerland, and has studied opera. In one of the letters posted on the Journal's website, she says she has chosen to be an opera singer.
Her first letter to the family is dated July 27, 2007 - just before the Bancroft family agreed, after sometimes rancorous debate, to sell the company it has owned for more than a century. "It is not the fault of past generations for not giving a sense of legacy to the present ones," she writes.
- Reuters
