Wednesday morning headlines

Battling for Dow Jones: Is the Bancroft family united in its opposition to Rupert Murdoch's $5 billion bid for Dow Jones, parent of the WSJ? Don't count on it. Despite word yesterday that family members and trusts constituting more than 50 percent of the voting power did not plan to sell, an unofficial tally a few days earlier showed that less than half of the Bancroft's voters opposed a transaction. "It is unclear what happened in those intervening days," the Journal reported, "but it is likely there was fierce lobbying between the factions.” No kidding. Heck, if you had the chance to sell shares at a 67 percent premium, wouldn’t you give it some thought? The shares and shareholders are scattered all over the place, so there’s no easy way of assessing sentiment at this point. But obviously, some – perhaps many – of the Bancrofts are interested. Plus, there's this from the NYT's Joe Nocera:

If the family tells Mr. Murdoch to take a hike — the likely outcome will be that Dow Jones stock will drop, not back to the mid-30s, where it was before yesterday, but far, far lower. And one has to wonder how the young Bancrofts will feel about Dow Jones’s heritage then. For people in the newspaper business, it is a wonderful gift that the family is so willing to stand behind The Wall Street Journal, even as its economics deteriorate. But when families that own one key asset become divided, the solution is usually to sell the asset. Just ask the Binghams of Louisville. Or the Chandlers of Los Angeles. A Bancroft family member once told me, “Without The Wall Street Journal, we’re just another rich family.” So long as the family feels that way, Rupert Murdoch will be able only to admire The Journal from afar. But if that ever changes, it’s his.

Spider Biz: Tuesday's opening of "Spider-Man 3" was very strong in Asia – by some accounts bigger in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, Hong Kong and the Philippines than versions one and two. The blockbuster, which received a tepid notice in the LATthis morning, opens domestically on Friday on 4,253 theaters, the widest North American opening of all time. Variety Deadline Hollywood Daily

WGA's $20 million: It's in a trust account and belongs to hundreds of writers, or their estates, as compensation for TV shows or movies that were viewed in foreign countries. So why hasn't the guild distributed all that cash to the rightful owners? Guild officials deny suggestions that there’s anything nefarious going on. Instead, they claim that it can be tricky identifying the people entitled to the money. From the LAT:

Sometimes the entities that send the money to the guild don't provide enough information, the union says. Show titles often are listed in a foreign language, or the translation doesn't match the English title. "Do we wish we didn't have $20 million on hand? Sure. We wish it were a lot easier to distribute," said Tony Segall, general counsel for the Writers Guild of America, West. "We've done nothing but work at getting this money out." Plaintiffs in a lawsuit disagree. Filed in state court in Los Angeles in 2005, the suit alleges that the union is improperly holding on to money that belongs to writers and heirs who aren't union members.

Best Farmers Market?: The LAT's Russ Parsons awards Wednesday's SM's farmers market (the one on Arizona Avenue) as best in show, based on interviews with farmers, chefs and shoppers. "That's why you'll find so many chefs and professional produce people shopping here," he writes. "If you don't get excited walking through this market, you simply don't like food." Frankly, I have found the SM market to be a tad overrated. And too bad there wasn't much attention paid to the economics of farmers markets, and whether it's such a great deal for consumers, especially with all the upscale markets selling much the same produce.

L.A. housing pretty safe: Among the many different ways of gauging the real estate market is risk - how susceptible an area is to fraud, defaults, etc. On that score, L.A. County is supposedly in decent shape compared to the nation as a whole. On a scale of 0 to 100, the local risk index was 1.30 in the first quarter, up a little from 1.14 a year earlier. California was 1.82 versus 1.45 and the U.S. index was 5.43. The index was prepared by the Web site HomeSmartReports. Daily News

Sluggish port traffic: Thousands of truck drivers boycotted marine terminals at the Ports of L.A. and Long Beach as part of a national immigration reform protest. But operations were not shut down and activity picked up later in the day. Last year, the protests virtually closed the ports. Press-Telegram

Tribune goes to Washington: It's time for the going-private Trib to ask the feds to waive restrictions that could prevent it from owning TV stations and newspapers in the same city. Among those cities, of course, is L.A., where Tribune owns both the LAT and KTLA. Because of the sale to Sam Zell, Tribune loses the grandfathering rights that waive the cross-ownership restrictions. Reuters