Dow Jones extends its severance plan

Dow Jones & Co., the newspaper publisher considering a $5-billion offer from Rupert Murdoch, made 135 managers eligible for a severance plan if the company is sold.

The managers are eligible for a year’s pay if they are fired within two years of a change of control, joining 25 senior executives who are covered for as much as two years, spokeswoman Linda Dunbar said Thursday.

The changes are meant to keep employees from leaving and focus them on their work while Dow Jones, publisher of the Wall Street Journal, considers a potential sale, the company said in a regulatory filing. Murdoch’s $60-a-share offer for Dow Jones was made public May 1. The company said May 31 that it would consider offers from Murdoch’s News Corp. and other potential buyers.

“They’re getting their decks in order for a deal, and I think it’s going to Murdoch,” said Richard Dorfman, managing director of Richard Alan Inc., a New York-based investment firm focusing on media companies. “They’re saying, ‘Anybody who has a problem with that, here is your parachute.’ ”

The company also is offering a minimum 12 weeks of severance to eligible employees if they are fired in a change of control, New York-based Dow Jones said in the filing. About 850 employees qualify, Dunbar said.

Dow Jones also adjusted time periods for bonuses tied to performance goals in a change of control, it said in the filing.