Sept. 10 (Bloomberg) -- Dow Jones & Co., publisher of the Wall Street Journal, said some jobs will be cut after the company's $5.2 billion sale to Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.
``Where job cuts are unavoidable, we will communicate that as soon as practical,'' Dow Jones Chief Executive Officer Rich Zannino said in a regulatory filing today. Employees who lose their jobs will receive severance and other assistance, he said.
Dow Jones anticipates a low number of reductions, said Linda Dunbar, a company spokeswoman. Murdoch, News Corp.'s chairman, has said the company will expand Dow Jones's presence in Europe and Asia and increase the Journal's international and national coverage.
``Because the main goal of News Corp. in this transaction is to increase profits by strengthening and growing our products and brands, we expect the number of jobs affected to be low,'' Dunbar said in an interview today. She declined to provide a specific figure for cuts.
Dow Jones, based in New York, rose 34 cents to $59.42 at 4:19 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. Class A shares of New York-based News Corp. declined 12 cents to $20.98 and have fallen 2.3 percent this year.
Murdoch told investors in an Aug. 8 conference call that there are no plans to cut Dow Jones's workforce.
``I think certainly we don't ever need firing plans,'' he said at the time.
News Corp., which agreed last month to buy Dow Jones for $60 a share, will invest in the company's products and brands, Zannino said today. In addition to the Journal, the purchase includes Dow Jones Newswires, the MarketWatch Web site, and Barron's.
Dow Jones competes with Bloomberg LP in providing financial news and information.
