Rupert Murdoch Resigns as Director of News International

Rupert Murdoch has stepped down from the board of companies behind U.K. newspapers, The Times, The Sunday Times, and The Sun.

The 81-year-old media mogul resigned as director of subsidiaries News International and Times Newspaper Holdings last week, according to records from the U.K.’s Companies House.

The scandal-ridden parent company, News Corp, plans to split into separate broadcast and publishing divisions. Murdoch will remain chairman of both divisions, but chief executive only of the TV and film division.

“Last week, Mr. Murdoch stepped down from a number of boards, many of them small subsidiary boards, both in the U.K. and U.S.,” a spokesman for News International was quoted as saying by the BBC.

“This is nothing more than a corporate house-cleaning exercise prior to the company split.”

The company announced in June that there would be a split and that the U.K. print titles, as well as the Wall Street Journal, the New York Post, The Australian, and book publisher Harper Collins would be merged into a single, publicly traded company.

The other company will comprise its film and television operations, including Fox News and Fox Entertainment Studios.

The split was long clamored by shareholders looking for increased returns from News Corp.. The newspaper and publishing business has seen its revenues slump in recent years as advertising and circulation revenue in print publishing declined. In contrast, its high-margin entertainment business reported year-over-year revenue gains, of 13 percent in 2011.

It is not clear which boards Murdoch has resigned from in the United States.

The move follows an inquiry into phone hacking at several U.K. newspapers owned by Murdoch and the arrest of 70 staff members.

Murdoch’s son James Murdoch, stepped down as executive chairman of News International following the scandal.

Claire Enders from U.K. media research firm Enders Analysis described the resignations as part of a “slow fade of Rupert and James from the U.K.”

“The grip of the Murdochs, finger by finger, has been loosened and it’s not in order to return triumphantly,” she was quoted as saying in the Daily Telegraph. “It’s a permanent shift.”

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