Murdoch cleaves media empire in two in long-awaited split
Just days after his marital split Rupert Murdoch has today split the entertainment and publishing divisions of his global media empire in a major restructuring exercise that aims to separate profitable entertainment businesses from the struggling publishing division.
This sees the 20th Century Fox, the Fox Broadcast Network and others merge to trade under the 21st Century Fox umbrella.
On the publishing side HarperCollins and Murdoch’s newspaper businesses will team up under the News Corp banner.
The move comes in the wake of the phone hacking scandal and ongoing shift to digital, changing the media landscape in ways which Murdoch believes can still turn a profit.
Operating income from Murdoch’s publishing businesses has collapsed by 35 per cent to £54m after being hit by a series of fines relating to the hacking scandal.
This contrasts sharply with entertainment assets, which includes the likes of the Simpsons and X-Men franchises, which pulled in excess of £800m.