Lex Fenwick leaves Dow Jones as chief executive

William Lewis named interim CEO as News Corp plans to review Dow Jones’ institutional strategy

Lex Fenwick joined Dow Jones in February 2012 after a 25-year career at Bloomberg (Reuters)

News Corp announced late on Tuesday the departure of Lex Fenwick as chief executive of its Dow Jones company, publisher of The Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones newswires.

William Lewis was named as interim CEO as News Corp plans to review Dow Jones’ institutional strategy and search for a permanent chief executive.

Fenwick joined Dow Jones in February 2012 after a 25-year career at Bloomberg, and is known for his forthright style of management.

“We thank Lex for his time and energy at the helm of Dow Jones, and in particular for his original vision of DJX as an innovative way to integrate content and deliver it to customers in a timely manner,” said Robert Thomson, chief executive of News Corp.

Fenwick had focused on expanding the company's institutional business, overseeing the launch of DJX, a real-time service of news and analysis for financial professionals, The Wall Street Journal reported. DJX has been in beta since the launch last year.

Over the past 20 years or so, Dow Jones's presence in the sector that sells financial news and data to banks and asset managers has weakened amid competition from rivals like Bloomberg, the Journal reported.

News Corp reported recently that "lower institutional product revenues" contributed to a decline in Dow Jones's quarterly revenue of 7 per cent, the Journal said.

“We’re reviewing the institutional strategy of Dow Jones with an eye towards changes that will deliver even more value to its customers,” added Thomson.

“As part of that, we’re planning improvements to DJX. We will also be redoubling our efforts to develop The Wall Street Journal and its digital properties globally, which continue to serve the world’s most influential readers with the most authoritative news and analysis.”

Lewis joined News Corp in 2010 as Group General Manager at News International (now News UK), and was appointed Chief Creative Officer at News Corp last year to “build new businesses, target acquisitions and drive digital initiatives for the company.”

Lewis was previously Editor-in-Chief of the Telegraph Media Group in the UK and also served as business editor of The Sunday Times and global news editor of the Financial Times, News Corp said.