NEWS CORP REDUCES PRESENCE IN CHINA

After years of playing nice with the Chinese government, enduring censorship and putting up with lax enforcement of piracy laws, News Corp is beating a not-so-hasty retreat from the Chinese mainland. The Rupert Murdoch-led organization said today (Tuesday) that it is selling its controlling stake in three Chinese TV stations to China Media Capital, a private equity fund backed by the Chinese government. It will retain a small stake in each of them, however. In an interview with today’s London Daily Telegraph, Alan Gould, an analyst at Evercore Partners in New York, commented: “Not for lack of trying, but [News Corp’s] success to date in Asia — the quickest-growing media market — has been somewhat limited.”