June 20 (Bloomberg) -- James Ottaway Jr., whose family controls 6.2 percent of the voting rights at Dow Jones & Co., said General Electric Co. and Pearson Plc would be better owners for the publisher of the Wall Street Journal than News Corp.

Ottaway has urged Dow Jones's controlling Bancroft family not to accept News Corp.'s $5 billion offer. A former Dow Jones executive, Ottaway, 69, has said that News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch wouldn't protect the Journal's editorial independence.

``If the Bancroft family has decided to sell or bring in partners, GE and Pearson would be much better owners and/or partners than News Corp.,'' Ottaway wrote in an e-mail. He didn't elaborate.

The Ottaways have owned shares of New York-based Dow Jones since they sold their community newspapers to the company in 1970. Dow Jones spokeswoman Andrea Grinbaum declined to comment on Ottaway's statement.

GE and Pearson are discussing a plan to join Dow Jones with GE's CNBC unit and Pearson's Financial Times in a closely held venture, a person with knowledge of the talks said this week. The person declined to be identified because the talks are private and preliminary. The bid would give the Bancroft family a minority stake, the person said.

A GE-Pearson offer may appeal to the Bancrofts, who have balked at selling to Murdoch on concern he would use the news company to advance his business and political interests.

Bancroft Plan

Dow Jones's stock has traded below Murdoch's bid of $60 a share since last week. The shares advanced 40 cents to $59.15 at 12:18 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading.

As of last week, the Bancrofts were still working on a proposal to send News Corp. that would be designed to safeguard the Wall Street Journal's editorial independence. Roy Winnick, a spokesman for the Bancroft family, declined to comment today.

Ottaway said last month that Murdoch's plan for an autonomous board for the Journal doesn't allay his concern. The structure would be similar to the one created for the Times of London after News Corp. bought it in 1981 and guarantee the independence of the newspaper.

Murdoch broke all those guarantees, according to the book ``Good Times, Bad Times'' by Harold Evans, whom Murdoch named editor of the Times in 1981. Evans left a year later after a falling out with Murdoch.

CNBC, the business news cable-television channel owned by GE's NBC Universal, has a contract to share content with the Wall Street Journal through 2012. News Corp. plans to start a business news channel this year to compete with CNBC and Bloomberg LP, owner of Bloomberg News.

Bloomberg also competes with Dow Jones and Pearson in providing financial news and information.

To contact the reporter on this story: Leon Lazaroff in New York at llazaroff@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: June 20, 2007 12:22 EDT