Murdoch set to name new publishing chief
Robert Thomson is expected to be appointed to lead News Corp.’s print spinoff venture
News Corp., the media company controlled by Rupert Murdoch, plans to name Dow Jones Editorin-Chief Robert Thomson as chief executive officer of its proposed publishing spinoff, a person familiar with the decision said. The timing of the announcement hasn’t been set yet, though it could come as early as next week, said the person, who asked not to be named. Thomson also serves as managing editor of the Wall Street Journal, the largest U.S. newspaper. Gerald Baker, Thomson’s deputy, will replace him in that role, the source said. News Corp., bowing to pressure from shareholders, agreed in June to split into two publicly traded entities. The publishing spinoff will include the Journal and other newspapers in the U.S., U.K. and Australia, as well as the HarperCollins book division, education and marketing assets. News Corp. acquired the Journal as part of its purchase of Dow Jones in 2007. The breakup, slated for mid-2013, will let the existing company focus on News Corp.’s faster-growing en- tertainment business, including its Fox television and film operations. Murdoch will be chairman of both entities and CEO of the entertainment side.
As head of the spinoff, Thomson would have to reinvigorate a business suffering from shrinking profit and a scandal at its U.K. newspapers. Still, the business will have a clean balance sheet, with no debt and “very large reserves of cash,” Murdoch said when the plan was proposed in June.
Murdoch signalled at the time that he would focus on internal candidates for the publishing CEO job.
News Corp. has “world-class executives we’re looking at,” he said.
Murdoch, 81, hired Thomson, a fellow Australian, to run the Journal in 2007 and appointed him head of all of Dow Jones the following year. Thomson, 51, had served as editor of the Times of London, where he bolstered Internet readership. Before that, he was editor of the U.S. edition of the Financial Times.
The latest move would put the publishing spinoff in the hands of a career journalist, rather than someone with CEO experience.