By the end of this week, the world’s best-known chronicle of capitalism, The Wall Street Journal, will be owned by another company — something many thought would never happen.

For more than a century, the Journal’s parent company, Dow Jones & Co., was controlled by the Bancroft family, descendants of Clarence Barron, one of the earliest owners of the storied financial publishing company.

The family was long seen as unified in opposition to selling and at first rebuffed the extremely rich offer from Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp., which valued the company at more than $5 billion, well above where Dow Jones stock was trading.

In the end, Murdoch won over enough family members to acquire Dow Jones and its flagship paper. News Corp. formally seals the deal with a vote by Dow Jones shareholders Thursday, but the outcome is assured since enough of the Bancrofts have entered binding commitments of support.

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