Committed to publishing business: Rupert Murdoch

MUMBAI: Battered and bruised by the phone-hacking scandal, News Corp chief Rupert Murdoch has denied reports that he is considering spinning off British newspapers business News International to protect his media empire from the scandal.

According to reports in The Daily Telegraph and the Financial Times, executives at News Corp were looking into ways to split off the Sun, the Times and the Sunday Times.

Among the various options before the media conglomerate, putting the News International titles into a trust is also being considered. It is also weighing the option of selling the newspapers besides a proposal to go into a joint venture with a media partner was also on the table.

However, the plans are still in their infancy, the reports said.

"News Corporation remains firmly committed to our publishing businesses, including News International, and any suggestion to the contrary is wholly inaccurate. Publishing is a core component of our future," Murdoch Sr said in a statement.

The development comes in the wake of British public prosecutor charging former News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks and five others including her husband Charles Brooks for perverting the course of justice in the phone hacking scandal.