Rupert Murdoch said on Wednesday he had hoped to negotiate a deal to acquire Dow Jones “in a private setting” but had been forced to discuss the offer publicly after it was “leaked” last week.

He said he was a “great admirer” of the Bancroft family which controls Dow Jones, owner of the Wall Street Journal, and Dow Jones’s new management. He declined to say any more about the offer “out of deference to the family and their right to deliberate in private”.