How Long Can the Great Media Families Last?

With the steady crumbling of Conde Nast, you have to wonder how long their chairman, Si Newhouse, can hang tough. Great media baron families like his are a dying breed. More »

As the 'Journal' Turns: Meet the Bancrofts!

Intrigue! Betrayal! Sex (sort of)! With Rupert Murdoch's hostile takeover attempt momentarily stalled, the Weekend Wall Street Journal turns the mirror on the sprawling clan that pays the bills and fields the buyout offers. Four reporters and 3,000 words later, it turns out the Bancrofts are just like your family, except with a few more horses and sailboats. And maybe their smelly old people tell better stories:

Short and ribald, Mrs. Cox enjoyed surprising friends and family with brash comments. One visitor to the Oaks recalls her telling a story about traveling across the Atlantic as a young girl and playing mah-jongg with Franklin D. Roosevelt, the New York governor and later U.S. president. She told of catching FDR cheating and calling him on it.

So, "mah-jongg" is what they called it then? After the jump, an introductory viewer's guide to the wondrous world of the Bancrofts, with illustrations! More »