An ESOP for Dow Jones?

Ron Burkle of Yucaipa Capital and Brad Greenspan, an Internet entrepreneur, are proposing to buy the Dow Jones Company, publisher of the Wall Street Journal, using an ESOP as part of the transaction. Burkle had tried to buy the Tribune Company using an S corporation ESOP and earlier tried to incorporate an ESOP in return for labor concessions as part of a buyout of papers owned by the McClatchy chain. The role of the ESOP in the Dow Jones proposal has not been disclosed. Most observes believe that the company will be sold to Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation.