News Corp. Names Bloomberg Executive Lex Fenwick CEO of Dow Jones

NEW YORK - Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. on Thursday named Lex Fenwick CEO of its Dow Jones & Co. unit.

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He joins the conglomerate from Bloomberg LP, where he spent 25 years, most recently as CEO of Bloomberg Ventures. He succeeds Les Hinton, who left the company in July amid the company's phone hacking scandal.

Based in New York, he will report to Chase Carey, president, COO and deputy chairman. His appointment is effective Feb. 13.

“Lex has been a driving force in the financial news and information industry for more than two decades,” said Carey. “His aggressive and bold leadership will be invaluable to Dow Jones at a time when digital technologies are making information ever more important. We have a great opportunity to build enormous value around Dow Jones’ unique expertise and franchises.

“We have clearly established [The Wall Street Journal] as the premium consumer newspaper, and we are thrilled that Lex will be driving our plans to grow all our Dow Jones franchises into true innovative market leaders for today’s digital world. We believe our enterprise business has the potential to follow the brand’s success in the consumer space and be the premier product in providing the kind of hard-to-find, premium content that the financial customer demands.”

Said Fenwick: "The people, brands and franchises give us a wonderful opportunity to grow and develop new elements that we hope will reap rewards in the future."

Fenwick joined Bloomberg in 1987. In 2001, he was named COO, working alongside founder Michael Bloomberg. When Bloomberg ran for mayor of New York in 2001, Fenwick became CEO of Bloomberg LP.

He founded Bloomberg Ventures in July 2008, a unit designed to explore opportunities to "enhance, expand and diversify" Bloomberg products.

Email: Georg.Szalai@thr.com

Twitter: @georgszalai