MURDOCH DEMERGES HIS PUBLISHING AND ENTERTAINMENT COMPANIES

Rupert Murdoch on Monday formally announced the split of News Corp into two companies. One, which will retain the name News Corp, will include all of the company’s publishing operations, including The New York Post, The Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones, the London Times and Sunday Times, the London Sun and the Sun on Sunday […]

MAJOR NEWS CORP INVESTORS PREPARE TO BATTLE MURDOCH

The reported decision by News Corp to name James Murdoch to run the company’s Fox TV operations after he was strongly censured by OFCOM, the British broadcasting regulator, for his failure to take action in the British hacking scandal, is being seen as an unconscionable act of defiance by some News Corp shareholders. Julie Tanner, […]

JAMES MURDOCH: CENSURED IN UK, UPPED IN US

A day after the British media regulator OFCOM said that James Murdoch’s conduct as head of News International while the telephone hacking scandal unfolded “repeatedly fell short of the conduct to be expected of him as a chief executive officer and chairman,” reports emerged that News Corp is about to appoint him as head of […]

U.K. REGULATOR SLAPS MURDOCH’S WRISTS

OFCOM, Britain’s TV regulator, will not yank News Corp’s license to operate BSkyB, the British satellite TV service. In a ruling issued today (Thursday), OFCOM said that while some of former News International Chairman James Murdoch’s actions were “ill-judged,” there was no evidence to date that he had “deliberately engaged in any wrongdoing.” The regulator […]

ALL (BUT ONE) NEWS CORP EXECS TAKE COMPENSATION HIT

Of all of News Corp’s top executives, only Fox News Channel Chairman Roger Ailes received a raise in 2011, according to SEC filings reported by today’s (Wednesday) Los Angeles Times. Ailes, in fact, received a 30 percent increase in compensation to $21.1 million versus $15.6 million in 2011. Other top officers took significant hits to […]

EX-NEWS CORP LAWYER ARRESTED IN HACKING SCANDAL

In a surprising development, Scotland Yard has arrested Tom Crone, the former legal adviser to News International, on suspicion of telephone hacking. In 2010, Crone and Colin Myler, the editor of the now defunct News of the World, testified that they had informed News International CEO James Murdoch that there was evidence that telephone hacking […]

ELISABETH MURDOCH CHALLENGES BROTHER JAMES IN EDINBURGH ADDRESS (Updated)

In a speech that suddenly — and surprisingly — seemed to lift her ahead of her brothers as the heir apparent within the News Corp media empire, Elisabeth Murdoch said on Friday that in the aftermath of the telephone hacking and bribery scandals affecting the company’s British newspapers, the organization needs to “discuss, affirm and […]

DID JAMES MURDOCH AND OTHERS OWN SECRET PHONES?

Scotland Yard said over the weekend that it is looking into the discovery of four iPhones issued to senior executives at News International in October 2009, when James Murdoch was running the unit that oversees News Corp-owned newspapers in the U.K. News reports indicated that although nearly $20,000 was billed for use of the phones […]

NEWS CORP SCANDAL THREATENS BRITISH PRIME MINISTER

Only weeks before he was appointed Culture Secretary with the remit to assess the consequences of Rupert Murdoch’s bid to take over complete ownership of BSkyB, the British satellite TV service, Jeremy Hunt sent a message to Prime Minister David Cameron urging that the government approve the deal. The message was disclosed today (Friday) during […]

WILL THE FCC YANK MURDOCH’S TV LICENSES?

A report by a parliamentary committee on Monday calling Rupert Murdoch unfit to oversee his media empire has inevitably touched off demands in the U.S. that he be stripped of his Fox TV broadcast licenses in this country. Melanie Sloan, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, said in a letter to […]

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