Alas, Poor Journal! We Knew It, Rupert

The Dow Jones board had decreed, and now it's up to the Bancroft family to decide whether Rupert Murdock will get the company, including its crown jewel, the Wall Street Journal. Many in the publishing business are upset - I know a number of hardcore journalists, many of whom happily write about business, who are ready to end their subscriptions to the Journal. (I'm certainly planning to.) And a company director has already resigned over the deal.

Why? Because in the face of commerce, people like to think that there are some to whom doing business is more than just making money. No matter what you thought of the editorial policy, the Journal's business coverage has been exemplary: fair, insightful, and well-crafted. That is something that doesn't come from a strictly economic imperative. Any of the writers or editors at the paper could go off and make considerably more in business. But they haven't because reporting on the news with style had an appeal that a pay check alone couldn't satisfy.

Murdock promises that he won't interfere to turn coverage to support his own business interests - as he has arguably done with every single media property of his. He offers a controlling committee to keep the journalism independent - although, as some who have worked for him note, he's simply ignored what such groups have said in the past. And why not? It would be his paper.

Supposedly, many in the Bancroft family, which owns the controlling block of shares, are ambivalent. It's hard to turn down that much money. But there are the pangs that something is wrong.

They feel that because there is something wrong. A commoditized life, where everything is for sale, has no meaning other than the price you can command. That means you're at the whim of the market with no sense of permanence. That's no life, because the essence of what you do doesn't really matter. Murdock may well get what he wants - people with money and power often do. But the world of business and of the intellect will be lessened for it, and no amount of money will ever make that up.