News Corp. names new unit Fox

News Corp. said Monday its new publishing company will keep the News Corp. name, while its separate media and entertainment company will be renamed Fox Group.

The conglomerate announced plans this summer to split into two public companies, one for its newspaper and book publishing business and the other for its fast-growing movie and TV operations. Rupert Murdoch will serve as chairman of the new News Corp. and chairman and CEO of Fox Group.

The new News Corp. will house newspapers such as The Wall Street Journal and New York Post, and Dow Jones Newswires. Fox Group, meanwhile, will include 20th Century Fox film and television studios and the Fox TV channels, among other properties.

The company named Wall Street Journal managing editor Robert Thomson as CEO of the new News Corp. As part of the changes, News Corp. said it will cease publication of The Daily, its iPad news application, on Dec. 15.

"From its launch, The Daily was a bold experiment in digital publishing and an amazing vehicle for innovation," Murdoch said in a statement. "Unfortunately, our experience was that we could not find a large enough audience quickly enough to convince us the business model was sustainable in the long-term."

News Corp. had hoped The Daily would lure paying subscribers and advertisers to a newspaper that included news, gossip and opinion. But The Daily had just 100,000 subscribers as of July, when News Corp. said it was laying off about one-third of the 170-person staff.

When News Corp. launched The Daily in 2011, it said it spent about $30 million to start it up and estimated that operating costs would amount to about half a million dollars per week, or about $26 million a year. -- AP