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Murdoch’s British newspaper chief to leave
NEW YORK: Rupert Murdoch’s top newspaper lieutenant in Britain is to leave his post at the end
of the
year, it was announced, heralding the start of a major shake-up at
parent company News
Corporation.
The sudden departure of Tom
Mockridge, chief executive since July 2011 of News International, which
encompasses The Sun, The Times, and The Sunday Times in London, was made
public by Murdoch himself.
It sets the stage for a restructuring of
News Corporation into two separate divisions with a publishing arm
controlling newspapers and an entertainment business controlling the
company’s television and film interests.
That recently announced move came in the
wake of heavy criticism, including from shareholders, about the
company’s handling of a phone hacking scandal that erupted in Murdoch’s
media empire in Britain.
In the wake of the illegality, the News
of the World newspaper was closed and a major police investigation is
ongoing with court cases against two former Murdoch editors scheduled to
take place next year.
Mockridge’s decision to leave also comes
amid much speculation that he was to miss out on the top job at News
Corp’s new publishing division.
The favorite for that post is
reportedly Robert Thomson, the top executive at the Murdoch-owned Wall
Street Journal and Dow Jones Newswires, and a former editor of The Times
in London.
Murdoch, chairman and chief executive
of News Corp, said in a statement that it had been his pleasure to have
Mockridge as a colleague for 22 years.
”Tom has always been a skilled
executive and a trusted friend. His decision to step down is absolutely
and entirely his own,” the magnate said.
”I am sorry to see him leave us but I know he will be a great success wherever he goes.”
Murdoch, 81, added that Mockridge’s
long tenure encompassed “his early days with our newspaper group in
Australia, his incredible work building SKY Italia,” as well as “his
steadfast leadership of News International.”
News Corp, one of the world’s biggest
media-entertainment conglomerates, owns the 20th Century Fox film
studios and Fox broadcasting operations, along with cable television
assets, newspapers in the US, Britain and Australia.
It also owns the HarperCollins publishing house.
A company statement said Mockridge
joined News Ltd in Australia in 1991, was CEO of Foxtel from 1997 to
2000, and spent a year with Murdoch’s son James at Star TV.
He then transferred to New Zealand as
CEO of what was then the company’s newspaper operations and Chair of
SkyNZ, before moving to Italy in 2002 to create Sky Italia.
Mockridge then took the role of CEO
European Television, and serves on the boards of BSkyB and Sky
Deutschland and is Chair of Fox Turkey.
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