Dieter Von Holtzbrinck, a German publishing executive, has resigned from Dow Jones’ board, saying that he could not support the company’s sale to Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp.

“Although I’m convinced that [the] News Corp offer is very generous in financial terms, I’m very worried that [Dow Jones’] unique journalistic values will long-term strongly suffer after the proposed sale,” Mr Von Holtzbrinck wrote fellow directors two days after they gave their backing to $5bn News Corp offer.