Murdoch chooses singer for WSJ board

Rupert Murdoch's long drawn-out purchase of the Wall Street Journal has taken a bizarre turn with the appointment to the board of News Corp of Natalie Bancroft, a little-known member of the family that owns Dow Jones, the paper's parent company. The Bancrofts had spent two months trying to decide which family member should represent them on the News Corp board - which they negotiated as part of the deal to sell. But they passed their deadline for making a nomination and so Murdoch chose for them. "They're a funny family," he said. "They couldn't decide among themselves who to nominate."
Not wanting one of the more awkward members of the Bancroft family, he plumped for Natalie who is described as "a 27-year-old opera singer living in Europe". Though no opera guide or website makes mention of her, she is said to be a budding mezzo-soprano who studied music at a private conservatory in Lausanne.
She never participated directly in any of the family meetings about the sale, instead phoning occasionally from Europe. When the family's final vote on the Murdoch sale was underway in late July, she was tied up - sailing off the coast of Corsica.
In an email to family members earlier this year, she wrote: "Maybe we are no longer capable, or do not genuinely have the talent or interest, to be the responsible stewards of the present business."
No wonder Rupert liked the cut of her jib.