Today, there's a great spasm of coverage of Dow Jones agreeing to Rupert Murdoch's purchase of the company. But what are the people really saying?

This morning, Wall Street Journal managing editor Marcus Brauchli sent out an internal memo to his troops, basically cautioning them not to rush to judgment and assuring them that Rupert Murdoch's purchase of the paper's parent company "won't change what we do in the newsroom." Uh, yeah, good luck with that! The full memo after the jump. (Nice sign-off, btw!)

A spokesman for the Bancroft family tells the Observer that the Dow Jones deal is not yet done. "The process of canvassing the Bancroft family members and trustees as to whether they wish to commit their respective shares to the proposed News Corporation transaction is still under way. Any suggestion that the process has been completed and/or that a particular level of support has been established is at this point premature." What's the phrase? Something about deckchairs and the Titanic? [NYO]

And we're done. From the Wall Street Journal:

"Dow Jones & Co. Inc.'s controlling Bancroft family 'has accepted' News Corp.'s $5 billion offer to buy the publisher of the Wall Street Journal, an executive of a Dow Jones unit said on Tuesday. 'The Bancroft family has accepted,' John Prestbo, editor and executive director of Dow Jones Indexes, told reporters on Tuesday in Chicago. Dow Jones 'will be part of News Corp,' he said." Finally. Now bring on the weeks of recrimination! [Reuters]

"Dow Jones is expected to reach a definitive agreement tonight to be acquired by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., CNBC's David Faber reported." Either way, just get it over with already! [CNBC]

Yesterday, the Bancroft family was undecided about accepting Rupert Murdoch's bid for Dow Jones. Today? The deal seems likely to happen, but who the hell knows? There's a proposal on the table for "the Dow Jones board to create a fund to cover payments to firms advising Bancroft family members." Those payments are expected to be around $30 million, but "the money would be paid only if at least one of two key holdout shareholders agreed to the deal: Christopher Bancroft and a group of trusts managed by Denver law firm Holme Roberts & Owen."

"News Corp. is 'highly unlikely' to proceed with its offer for Dow Jones & Co. if News's offer doesn't get more support from the Bancroft family than has currently emerged, a News Corp. spokesman said." [WSJ]

Could Rupert Murdoch's takeover bid for Dow Jones actually fail? That's the sense you get reading this morning's Wall Street Journal, which reports that divisions in the Bancroft family have hardened to the point where recalcitrant Bancrofts are invoking dead relatives (and dead Journal journalists) to argue against the sale. At Monday's meeting in Boston, Jane Cox MacElree, whose branch of the family controls 15% of Dow Jones' voting stock, "cited Daniel Pearl's death at the hands of kidnappers in 2002 in voicing her opposition to a bid by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. to buy Dow Jones & Co., publisher of the Journal, according to participants." How dramatic.

Well, now we know who's getting fired first! A portrait of Rupert Murdoch has been on display outside the offices of Dow Jones, and passers-by were encouraged to leave a message on it. "Joshua Prager, a senior special writer at The Wall Street Journal, approached the canvas to write the legend: 'Unfair and Imbalanced, stay away.'" [NYO]

• Bancrofts meet to discuss the Murdoch bid for Dow Jones: Meeting "productive," family still unsure whether to sell the company to Rupert Murdoch. [Reuters]
  

• The Bancroft clan gathers today in Boston to discuss whether or not to accept Rupert Murdoch's offer for Dow Jones. "Assuming that all the shareholders outside the Bancroft and Ottaway families favor selling, less than one-third of the Bancroft family's vote is needed to gain majority approval for the deal." [NYT]
  

Dow Jones director Dieter von Holtzbrinck resigns from board in protest of impending sale to Rupert Murdoch. [WSJ]

We've finally found a way to make our Rupert Murdoch roundups of any interest to the general public! If (when) the News Corp. titan completes his takeover of Dow Jones, he'll have the right to rename the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Would he? The Street.com seems to think so? But what would he call it? The best we can come up with is the "Suck It, James Ottaway Industrial Average," which is not very good. Please leave your alternatives in the comment section!

Here's what's new on the Valleywag Calendar:

• "The board of Dow Jones & Co. voted to approve News Corp.'s $5 billion bid for the company last night, with two directors abstaining from the vote and one leaving the meeting early, according to people familiar with the matter.... [A source said] legal liability prevented the two Bancroft members from registering "no" votes, but that their sentiment was against the deal." [WSJ]
  

Leave it to Eric Savitz, dean of the Valley's tech correspondents, to take on Rupert Murdoch. The rest of the media grudgingly sighs as it treats News Corp.'s pending acquisition of Dow Jones as an inevitability. But Savitz — who works at the Dow Jones-owned Barron's dares to ask the forbidden question: What if the Bancrofts, the family which owns a controlling stake in Dow Jones, turn Murdoch down? After asking this question, and exploring what might happen to the stock (short version: It will probably drop by half, from $57 to $30), he picks up 24/7 Wall Street's idea of having Dow Jones buy its U.K. rival, the Financial Times. Let's hope Murdoch keeps his promises about editorial independence. Or fancies having a stable of cheeky employees around. Because we'd sure miss Savitz if News Corp. buys Dow Jones and something, well, unpleasant happens.

It may be the third-to-last time you see Rupert Murdoch's smiling mug in hedcut in the Wall Street Journal. Next time should be when the Dow Jones full board approves the deal on Tuesday night, and the final time will be when the Bancroft family "reluctantly" agrees to the Murdoch proposal and crowns him the Divine Errorless Lord God King of Medialand. Neat. Shouldn't there be some horsemen or something?

"News Corp will meet Dow Jones directors this week in a session that could prove decisive in Rupert Murdoch's pursuit of the media group and its crown jewel, the Wall Street Journal newspaper," reports the Financial Times. Not so fast, says the Journal: "As News Corp. pursues its bid for Dow Jones & Co., a key member of the controlling Bancroft family, Christopher Bancroft, has launched his own last-ditch, long-shot crusade to block the deal, according to people familiar with the matter." Bancroft is talking to hedge funds and private equity folks in an attempt to buy more "super-voting shares" so as to scupper the deal. Slate's Jack Shafer still thinks the whole thing is a bad idea.
[Image:A.P.]

Today's developments in the continuing Rupert Murdoch saga: