News Corp. rules out selling print assets

News Corp. president Chase Carey on Thursday said the company had no plans to offload its underperforming print assets despite the damage done by the British phone hacking scandal. Carey, seen as a likely successor to Rupert Murdoch, acknowledged that some shareholders had talked to the company about spinning off the newspaper arm, but that was "not a path we are pursuing". "I think part of it is a general fad. Every time you have a (diversified) business, some in the investment community are looking to split it up," he said in an interview with News Corp-owned newspaper The Australian. "But our plan is to drive the business forward, and we have great and unique businesses and our focus is improving the profitability of those businesses." Despite the digital age disrupting traditional business models, its newspaper and publishing divisions remain "a critical part of the company's DNA", Carey added during a trip to Sydney. "Part of my time here is about how do we take advantage of the strengths of the business," Carey said of News Limited's position as the dominant newspaper company in Australia. "How do you drive historical aspects of the business that still drive financials today but also intelligently transition to take advantage of new digital mediums? "It is a challenge but also an opportunity. Realistically, we are just sort of scratching the surface. A digital platform provides flexibility to do a lot more things, creating new products. "You have to look at it as a digital platform without boundaries, and the challenge is how do you monetise it." Last month, News Corp. posted a sharp rise in quarterly net profit on the back of strong television and film growth. This offset declines in publishing and an US$87 million charge related to the phone-hacking scandal in Britain that saw the company shut down its mass-selling News of the World tabloid. At the time, Carey said he expected their British publishing segment to be down more than US$150 million for the full fiscal year, while also warning that economic jitters had "severely impacted" the business in Australia. In his interview with The Australian, Carey declined to go into details of the phone hacking scandal, but acknowledged its impact. "We have been very publicly committed to doing the right thing and cooperating with the authorities," he said. "We have to deal with what is going on... we are going to put things right and take those businesses forward. "The other challenge is not to let those events affect the rest of the business."