The efforts by Bancroft family members to sell, or not to sell, Dow Jones, the media company they control, often resemble bumper cars at an amusement park: There have been numerous collisions with one another and lot of backing up and spinning around in circles.

In a final effort to make it appear as if they are really driving a deal, some family members have pushed the board of Dow Jones to seek out other bidders. Trying to get at least one other suitor in the door should, in theory at least, give the family some additional leverage in negotiating with Rupert Murdoch, whose $60-a-share offer for the company has so far scared off any potential rival.

Now, a committee of Dow Jones directors will meet with Ron Burkle, who made his billions in the supermarket business, the Wall Street Journal and New York Times report. Burkle has not made an offer, but he has indicated his interest in working with the Dow Jones union toward coming up with an alternative bid. One possibility might be a buyout using an employee stock ownership plan, similar to Sam Zell's takeover of Chicago-based Tribune.

Brad Greenspan, the founder of the company that was the parent of MySpace before Murdoch's News Corp. acquired MySpace, has also expressed an interest in working with the Dow Jones union on a bid.  Dow Jones publishes the Journal and Barron's and owns Factiva and Dow Jones news wires.

Still, any new bid is a long shot at this stage. The fact remains that Murdoch is offering a rich premium that few others can justify. Negotiations between Dow Jones and News Corp. are said to be advancing after an agreement on the editorial structure was reached, according to the Journal. And this may be the decisive week. It was on June 27 that Murdoch told Reuters that he expected a deal to be done in the next two or three weeks "if at all."