Hindsight

Bancroft Family Regrets WSJ Sale

As a result of the phone-hacking scandal.

In the wake of the phone-hacking scandal, many members of the Bancroft family, which once controlled The Wall Street Journal, now express regret over the 2007 sale of the newspaper to Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. Christopher Bancroft said that if he had known of the allegations, the deal “would have been more problematic for me. I probably would have held out.” When asked if she would have wanted the sale had she known what she knows now, family member Elizabeth Goth said, “My answer is no.” One relative is less remorseful. Bill Cox III said that he “probably would have thought twice about it but probably would have sold.”