News Corporation has confirmed that over the next year it will separate its publishing and entertainment companies, after rumours of an impending split began circulating earlier this week. In a memo addressed to staff Rupert Murdoch assures his employees that the decision will see News Corp. separate into “two global leaders in their own right […] as opposed to merely one.”

The new media and entertainment company will include many of News Corp.’s most lucrative interests, such as the broadcasters BskyB, Sky Italia, and Fox Broadcasting, as well as the hugely successful 20th Century Fox Film. Whilst there is little doubt that these businesses will continue to flourish, the same cannot be said of the soon-to-be-annexed newspaper titles. Debate is raging over whether removing the safety-net of profits generated by the entertainment businesses will see the company’s newspapers forced to shape-up, or if the measure will ultimately lead to widespread cost-cutting and titles being sold-off or even closed.

News Corporation announced yesterday that James Murdoch, once seen as the logical heir to his father Rupert's media empire, has stepped down as News International chairman.

Although James Murdoch will remain deputy COO of News Corp, the company announced in a press release that he has "relinquished his position" at its subsidiary News International, which publishes the Sun and the Times of London.

Instead, James Murdoch will move to New York, where, according his father, he will "continue to assume a variety of essential corporate leadership mandates, with particular focus on important pay-TV businesses and broader international operations."

James Murdoch steps down as News International continues to deal with the consequences of the phone-hacking scandal that led to the closure of the News of the World last summer. Murdoch himself was twice called before the UK parliament's media select committee to answer questions about his involvement in the scandal.

The arrests of five Sun journalists over alleged corrupt payments made to police and public officials have prompted angry responses from sections of the UK press and from the National Union of Journalists.

Sun deputy editor Geoff Webster, chief reporter John Kay, chief foreign correspondent Nick Parker, picture editor John Edwards and deputy news editor John Sturgis were arrested early on Saturday morning and later released on bail.

Trevor Kavanagh at The Sun condemned the arrests in an article today, beginning "The Sun is not a 'swamp' that needs draining". He protested that the paper's journalists are being "treated like members of an organised crime gang" who are "subjects of the biggest police operation in British criminal history".

Kavanagh characterises the ongoing police investigation as "out of proportion", and describes the alleged crimes of the journalists who were arrested as being nothing more than "to act as journalists have acted on all newspapers through the ages, unearthing stories that shape our lives, often obstructed by those who prefer to operate behind closed doors"

News International launched on Friday the Sunday Times iPad app, which gives readers access to the 12 sections and the three magazines of the Sunday newspaper, Marketing Week reported.

The app is being offered for free to those who subscribe to the print and digital editions of the newspaper. However, it's also available for £1.79 per issue and it includes exclusive access to a TV guide.

Photo source: Press Gazette
Rupert Murdoch's media company also introduced an update of the Times app, which costs £9.99 a month and was being sold without a subscription bundle, the Press Gazette reminded.

Both the Times and the Sunday Times websites went behind a paywall in June and, according to a recent research, have only been able to retain 14 percent of its users.