News Corp confirms split of publishing and entertainment assets

News Corp shareholders have formally approved plans to split the media giant’s publishing and entertainment assets.

Chairman and chief executive Rupert Murdoch has said the “overwhelming majority” of shareholders approved the split, which is set to go ahead on 28 June.

The new entertainment branch, 21st Century Fox, will include the company’s global media and entertainment businesses.

The publishing sector, which will keep the name News Corp, will be made up of the company’s newspapers, information services and integrated marketing services, digital real estate services, book publishing, digital education and sports programming and pay-TV distribution in Australia.

News Corp owns The Sun, Times and Sunday Times in the UK, as well as a number of newspapers in Australia and the United States.

Earlier this week, Times editor John Witherow cited the company split as a reason for the loss of around 20 editorial jobs.

He said: “For several years now Times Newspapers has been losing money.

“The company has tolerated this because it could use profits from elsewhere in News Corp to pay for our papers and because the proprietor has a passion for newspapers.

“I fear that era of being subsidised is coming to an end. The separation of the two companies means that the newspapers will form a bigger and more exposed element in the new News Corp.”