SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- A bankruptcy filing by General Motors Corp. GM, +2.12% would prompt the publisher of the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, +1.66% to remove the car maker's stock from the blue-chip average and could cause a revamp of other components, said Sybille Reitz, a spokeswoman for Dow Jones Indexes, Friday. "If a company files for bankruptcy we would typically remove it from the index," she said. "Then we review the whole index, and if we feel that there are additional changes needed, then we would react," she said. Wall Street Journal managing editor Robert Thomson, working with other WSJ editors, decides which companies should be included in the 30-member index. Launched on May 26, 1896, the Dow average typically includes U.S. companies that are industry leaders and that "have a long-standing history," Reitz said.