The new publishing company, which will retain the News Corp. name, officially kicks off on June 28 with properties such as: The Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones Newswires, The Times of London, Australian pay-TV services, book publisher HarperCollins and fledgling education unit, Amplify.
The spin-off comes as newspapers face plunging advertising revenue and readers who increasingly prefer to get news for free on their smartphones and tablets. Shares of newspaper companies—once considered blue-chip investments—have tumbled over the past decade as investors fear a permanent drain in ad sales.
Against this backdrop, the publishing company's new chief executive, Robert Thomson, said there will be "relentless" cost cuts in store for the business. He gave no specifics.
News Corp. executives took pains to note almost half of the publishing company's revenue comes from sources other than advertising. One revenue source is Dow Jones, which sells news and information to financial institutions and competes with Thomson Reuters and Bloomberg.
Dow Jones CEO Lex Fenwick highlighted the introduction of a new platform, code-named DJ X. He emphasized one product, one price, and one standard contract.
"If we can take a little more of institutional spend with DJ X—if we deliver that product with real value, there's a real opportunity to increase our market share," he said.
Fenwick also said Dow Jones is working on a messaging platform to compete with Bloomberg's vaunted product.
Clean Balance Sheet
Thomson, a close confidant of Murdoch, ensured the new publishing company would start out with a clean balance sheet, no debt and $2 billion in cash to buffer operations and attract investors. News Corp. intends to pay a dividend, but the board has yet to determine the details.
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News Corp. said last Friday that it would write down the value of its Australian and U.S. publishing assets by up to $1.4 billion, potentially wiping out the company's estimated profit for the quarter ending June 30.
Thomson said the company will have "a permanent start-up sensibility." He added, "We will be relentless in our cost-cutting and in our pursuit of profits."
The new News Corp. also unveiled its logo—written in a cursive script based on the handwriting of Murdoch and his father, Keith, whose Australian newspapers were the seeds of the media empire.
The Fox network, the movie studio and a set of lucrative cable properties will become a separately traded company called 21st Century Fox.
"I have been given an extraordinary opportunity most people never get in their lifetime: the chance to do it all over again," said Murdoch.
