A month ago, the news that Rupert Murdoch through News Corp. was willing to pay $60 per share to take over Dow Jones sent shock waves through the news industry and investment community. Thursday’s announcement of the Bancroft family’s unexpected decision to entertain the News Corp. bid and explore other options (code for “let’s make sure everyone knows we tried”) set off a repeat performance. Meanwhile, no immediate plans for a meeting between Murdoch and the Bancrofts—and no real sense of timeline.

NYT: “According to people close to the family who declined to be identified, the family wants any bidder to meet two conditions. The first is more money, which means that any bidder, including Mr. Murdoch, would have to beat his first offer of $60 a share. Second, and perhaps more important, the family wants an independent overseer to guarantee what it called “the editorial independence and integrity of The Wall Street Journal.”
—People close to the family say Christopher Bancroft, a DJ director who gave an interview to the Journal last week naysaying a sale, is now willing to consider it and that the interview “may have been a negotiating tactic.”
—During a presentation about the possible scenarios, some family members found DJ CEO Rich Zannino “was far more persuasive in describing the former, suggesting that the company was unlikely to achieve results that would match the value of Mr. Murdoch’s offer.”
—The Thomson-Reuters deal also figured in.

FT: The announcement came one day after the largest outside shareholder urged a sale. Brian Rogers, the chairman and chief investment officer of T. Rowe Price, told the paper: ”There might be other buyers more palatable to them. But who’s to say Rupert Murdoch is all that bad? The offer to purchase Dow Jones at $60 in our view represents a fairly attractive transaction price. I find it hard to believe that the company itself has a plan to get the shares to $60.”

Eric Savitz, Barron’s Online: “Goodbye, Dow Jones (DJ), it has been nice knowing you. The Bancroft family, which has voting control of the company that publishes The Wall Street Journal, Barron’s and this blog, has apparently softened in its opposition to Rupert Murdoch’s $60 a share takeover offer. Take this statement to its logical conclusion, and Dow Jones seems destined to follow Knight-Ridder and the dodo bird into extinction.” (His blog post includes a disclaimer that he works for DJ, is a shareholder and is a member of the IAPE, the union already on record opposing Murdoch’s bid.)

Bloomberg: Michael Chren, managing director of Allegiant Asset Management Co., a DJ shareholder: “It’s now an auction situation, and my sense is that Murdoch has them exactly where he wants them. No one else is coming to this party. It seems very likely we’re headed to a deal between News Corp. and Dow Jones.”

More from WSJ: “... over the past several weeks, the roughly three dozen adult members of the Bancroft family have been in frequent contact to discuss possible alternatives. Some family members have become convinced that ‘the status quo’ is no longer an option for Dow Jones, according to people familiar with their thinking. ...By publicly declaring their willingness to do a deal, the family hopes to convey to potentially interested parties that they are willing to consider offers besides Mr. Murdoch’s. ... Some investment bankers say potential bidders were getting signals that the Bancrofts wouldn’t sell the company to any party, or that they wouldn’t entertain bids less than the hefty $60-a-share that Mr. Murdoch has offered.”