'Relentless' cost-cutting planned for new News Corp.

NEW YORK, May 29 (UPI) -- The new News Corp., separated from its movie business and focusing on U.S. and other publishing, plans merciless cost-cutting, its new chief executive said.

The company, to be spun off June 28 from the existing News Corp., which will be renamed 21st Century Fox and focus on TV and films, will pursue an "aggressive digital expansion" in the United States, Britain and Australia as well as "relentless" cost-cutting, forthcoming Chief Executive Officer Robert Thomson said at the new company's first investor briefing.

Thomson is also The Wall Street Journal's managing editor.

The upcoming publicly traded company, whose media interests besides the Journal and other newspapers include HarperCollins, the world's No. 2 English-language book publisher, also unveiled the company's new logo, based on the handwriting of News Corp. Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Rupert Murdoch and his father, Keith Murdoch, who founded News Corp.'s predecessor company in Australia in 1923.

The new company's motto will be "Passionate. Principled. Purposeful," Murdoch said.

Murdoch, who will be the new company's executive chairman, acknowledged making "spectacular" mistakes with News Corp. over the years but said the new company's assets were "undervalued and underdeveloped."