Business

News Corp. names Lex Fenwick Dow Jones CEO

News Corp. on Thursday named Lex Fenwick as the CEO of Dow Jones & Co.

Fenwick replaces Les Hinton, who left the company in July.

Fenwick joins Dow Jones from Bloomberg LP, where he most recently was the CEO of Bloomberg Ventures. Dow Jones properties include The Wall Street Journal (WSJ), Dow Jones Newswires, MarketWatch, SmartMoney and All Things D.

“Lex has been a driving force in the financial news and information industry for more than two decades,” said News Corp. Chief Operating Officer Chase Carey in a statement.

“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.”

News Corp. Chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch said, “We have clearly established WSJ 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.”

Fenwick joined Bloomberg in 1987 and helped launch the Bloomberg Professional service, the bundle of financial data and analytics geared toward Wall Street professionals.

In 2001, he was named chief operating officer of Bloomberg LP. Later that year, after company founder Michael Bloomberg stepped back to pursue a political career, Fenwick was appointed CEO. He founded Bloomberg Ventures in 2008, a unit “designed to explore opportunities to enhance, expand, and diversity Bloomberg products,” a News Corp. press release said.

“I’m honored and excited to join Dow Jones at such a transformational time,” Fenwick said in a statement. “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.”

News Corp. owns NewsCore, the publisher of this report.