News Corporation’s new publishing company will get an infusion of $2.6 billion in cash and will have no debt when it separates from the company’s higher-growth cable channels and Hollywood studio this summer.
In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the company confirmed on Friday what analysts had expected: Rupert Murdoch will make sure his beloved trove of more than 100 newspapers will have plenty of capital once they are split off on their own.
The company will consist in the United States of strong newspapers, like The Wall Street Journal, and weaker ones like The New York Post, that will no longer have the security blanket of billions in revenue from entertainment assets like Fox News, FX and movies like “Avatar.†In an interview last summer, when News Corporation confirmed the split, Mr. Murdoch, the company’s chairman and chief executive, said his reporters should not feel like they have a “crutch†in the entertainment assets.
Instead, they will have safety net in the cash infusion announced Friday. The new company, which will retain the name News Corporation, will also include HarperCollins and a collection of lucrative Australian pay TV assets amounting to $18.6 billion in total assets, according to the S.E.C. filing.
