News Corp heading for a split?

News Corp chief executive and chairman 

Rupert Murdoch arrives in central London. 

The media mogul announced he would 

launch a Sunday edition of The Sun.Reuters

-Hindustan Times
Washington: Rupert Murdoch’s media empire News Corp may be splitting into two companies, separating its publishing assets from its bigger entertainment arm. The publishing operations include The Wall Street Journal and New York Post in the US, The Times and Sun in the UK, some Australian papers and HarperCollins, which publishes books.The entertainment businesses include 20th Century Fox Film Studio, Fox broadcast network and Fox News channel, and Star TV operations including Star TV India.
News Corp’s entertainment operations form a bulk of its business, and revenues, accounting for three-quarters of the company’s revenue for the first nine months of the current fiscal. The company posted an operating profit of $4.2 billion for the nine months ended March, of which $458 million was contributed by its publishing operations.The decision is unlikely to impact the Murdoch family’s effective control of the company through its 40% voting stake in New Corp, The Wall Street Journal reported.


The move comes in the wake of the phone-hacking scandal in the UK, which has shaken up News Corp, forcing the closure of News of the World, and the trimming of Murdoch’s elder son James Murdoch’s role.The scandal also forced the company to abandon plans to increase its stake in UK satellite TV operation British Sky Sy Broadcasting PLC.