News Corporation has announced the separation of its publishing and entertainment businesses to be completed by June 28. The company has confirmed the date for the separation into two companies, a publishing firm which will retain the News Corp brand, while the other will be renamed 21st Century Fox. Both will be headed by the […]
News Corporation has announced the separation of its publishing and entertainment businesses to be completed by June 28.
The company has confirmed the date for the separation into two companies, a publishing firm which will retain the News Corp brand, while the other will be renamed 21st Century Fox. Both will be headed by the current chairman and chief executive Rupert Murdoch.
The confirmation of the date follows last year’s promise by News Corp to separate its entertainment and publishing businesses in the wake of the UK phone-hacking scandal in 2011 which led to the closure of the News of the World.
The publishing company will comprise the Times, Sunday Times and the Sun, plus the Wall Street Journal, the New York Post and the Australian plus daily titles in the cities of Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide. The book publisher HarperCollins will also be included. The TV and film business will include the US news channel Fox News and the 20th Century Fox film studio.
The split means that loss-making newspapers will no longer be cushioned by the company’s more profitable entertainment interests and could lead to more cuts in the publishing companies.
Earlier this month the editor of Murdoch’s New York Post, Col Allan, issued a memo offering staff the chance to volunteer for pay-off packages in order to reduce the paper’s headcount by 10%.
