Outsider takes over as WSJ boss after Murdoch friend Hinton steps down
The new CEO of Dow Jones & Co, owners of The Wall Street Journal, is an executive from rival publishers Bloomberg.
I didn't know, said Hinton
Bloomberg LP executive Lex Fenwick replaces Les Hinton who left in July, a casualty of the News of the World phone-hacking scandal in Britain.
Hinton was a longtime trusted colleague of Murdoch, going back 52 years to their Australian newspaper roots.
The choice of Fenwick, a News Corp outsider, "could be seen as aimed at helping distance the division from the phone-hacking troubles," said Adweek.
Fenwick spent 25 years at Dow Jones rival Bloomberg, and was CEO of Bloomberg Ventures, a unit he started in 2008 to enhance and expand existing Bloomberg products.
In resigning as executive chairman of News International, which published the News of the World, Hinton apologised for the paper's actions but said he was “ignorant of what apparently happened.”
In his resignation letter, he said: “I have seen hundreds of news reports of both actual and alleged misconduct during the time I was executive chairman of News International and responsible for the company. That I was ignorant of what apparently happened is irrelevant and in the circumstances I feel it is proper for me to resign from News Corp, and apologise to those hurt by the actions of the News of the World.”
Fenwick starts his new job, based in New York and reporting to Chase Carey, president and COO of News Corp, on 13 February.