News Corp shows logo of struggling publishing unit

LOS ANGELES--News Corp. on Tuesday unveiled a friendlier-looking logo for the publishing division as it prepared to split the struggling newspaper and book unit from its TV and movie business by the end of June.

The unveiling, at a oneday meeting with investors in New York, followed the company’s recent disclosure to securities regulators that the publishing unit would book an impairment charge of up to $1.4 billion this quarter before being spun off as a separate, publicly traded company.

The logo, in cursive lettering, is based on the handwriting of founder Rupert Murdoch and his father. It replaces the striped globe of the current News Corp. brand.

Since the split was announced last June, News Corp.’s stock has climbed 65 percent. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index has risen 26 percent over the same period. Many investors believe the struggling newspaper company will no longer be a drag on growth of the entertainment businesses.

On Tuesday, the chief executive of the publishing group, which will continue to be called News Corp., touted the unit’s future as a separate entity while acknowledging its difficulties as print advertising continues to decline across the industry.

“We’re certainly not naive about the challenges facing some of our newspapers,” said CEO Robert Thomson, former managing editor of The Wall Street Journal, which will be part of the new News Corp.

Murdoch did not hold out hope for an advertising turnaround for print newspapers, whose ad revenue has been siphoned off by Web-based companies like Google Inc. and Facebook Inc.