News Corp considering selling off remaining UK newspapers

Jul 12, 2011 |

London

Tags:

Rupert Murdoch

Michael Woolf alleged that executives at the media mogul's parent company, News Corporation, were discussing the possibility of disposing of their UK subsidiary News International, which owns the Times, the Sunday Times and the Sun, as well as the News of the World before it was closed.

Wolff, the author of Inside the Secret World of Rupert Murdoch, said that there is a faction within the media conglomerate asking. “why do we own newspapers anyway?” the Telegraph reports.

Wolff’s comments suggests that News Corp is examining radical options to contain what has escalated into its biggest crisis since facing the threat of bankruptcy in the early 1990s.

James Dix, an analyst who tracks News Corp for Wedbush Securities in Los Angeles, said that investors wouldn't necessarily welcome the sale of News International.

“Newspapers are a business that mean more to Murdoch than to the investment community,” said Dix.

“But it would depend a little bit on what you get for them,” he added.

News Corp. has declined to comment on the matter.

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