Rupert Murdoch resigns as News International director

Rupert Murdoch has stepped down as a director of News International leading to speculation that he is preparing to sell the newspaper group.

His departure from the NI group follows strings of other resignation from Times Newspaper Holding, News Corp Investment and number of other New Corp’s US boards.

A spokeswoman for the News Corporation tried to play down the new developments, stating that the situation was just a “house-cleaning exercise”. She said: “Last week, Mr Murdoch stepped down from a number of boards, many of them small subsidiary boards both in the UK and US. This is nothing more than a corporate house-cleaning exercise prior to the company split.”

In a bid to reassure employees following speculation of a possible sell off, staffs at The Times, The Sunday Times and The Sun were sent an email saying that Murdoch remained “fully committed” as chairman despite his actions.

The email sent by Tom Mockridge, the head of News International, read: “I wanted to let you know that Rupert Murdoch has resigned as director of a number of companies, including NI Group Limited, known to most of you as News International, and Times Newspapers Holdings Limited.

“As you may be aware, Rupert resigned from a number of UK boards, including News Group Newspapers and Times Newspapers Limited, some time ago. He has also stepped down from more than a dozen boards of companies with interests in the U.S., Australia and India.”

As per the Murdoch’s plans, News Corporation is now on the verge of being split in to two groups, segregating the newspaper and publishing business from the rapidly growing film and television operations.

Rajeeb Gurung