News Corp. moves ahead with breakup News Corp., moving ahead with a plan to split into two companies, appointed Wall Street Journal editor Robert Thomson as head of the new publishing entity and said it would call the entertainment-focused business Fox Group. News Corp. agreed in June to break off its slower-growing publishing assets from its Fox television and film businesses after coming under pressure from shareholders. Rupert Murdoch, the billionaire founder of News Corp., will remain CEO of the Fox side, with Chase Carey serving as chief operating officer and James Murdoch working as Carey's deputy. Putting Thomson in charge of the publishing spin-off will help Murdoch preserve his vision for the company, said Ken Doctor, an analyst at Outsell Inc., a research firm in Burlingame. News Corp. closed its News of the World newspaper in July 2011 in response to public anger over revelations that journalists accessed messages on a murdered schoolgirl's mobile phone nearly a decade earlier. In addition to operating the Wall Street Journal and Times of London, the spin-off will include other newspapers in the United States, United Kingdom and Australia, the HarperCollins book division, education and marketing assets and the Australian TV business. Murdoch also announced the appointment of Bedi Ajay Singh, the former finance chief for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, as chief financial officer of the publishing company.