Dow Jones chief executive Richard F Zannino said on Thursday 6 December that he would resign as Rupert Murdoch''s News Corp installs a new management team that will be led by veteran company executive Leslie Hinton and London Times editor Robert Thomson.

News Corp''''s $5 billion-plus acquisition of Dow Jones is to be approved by shareholders at a meeting next Thursday. It will end nearly a century of control by the Bancroft family. (See: Murdoch bags Dow Jones)

Exodus
Zannino''''s resignation is the first of a likely series of high profile executive departures from the company, which publishes The Wall Street Journal (WSJ), Barron''''s and Dow Jones Newswires.

Among the executives expected to leave are Journal publisher Gordon Crovitz, Dow Jones chief financial officer Bill Plummer, general counsel Joseph A Stern and corporate communications chief Linda Dunbar. Crovitz is expected to continue writing a column for the Journal''''s editorial page.(See: Dow Jones appoints new GMs for The Wall Street Journal Online, Barron''''s Online and MarketWatch.com)

Thomson will oversee the editorial operations of Dow Jones, and report to Hinton, who is executive chairman of News International in London, and whose ties to Murdoch go back four decades.

Rupert''s reputation
Murdoch has a reputation for getting directly involved in the newspapers he owns, and is likely to take a hands-on role at the new acquisition. He hasn''''t shied away from expressing his views about how the venerable Journal should change under his ownership.

Apart from selling the New York Post and then buying it back, Murdoch hasn''''t made a big newspaper acquisition since the late 1980s. He publicly coveted the Journal for years before making an offer. Murdoch''s media empire - which has a market capitalisation of $64 billion - started with a single newspaper in Adelaide, Australia. In the ''80s, it expanded into a global film and television conglomerate that also owns newspapers around the world.

Will Murdoch''s magic work?
But his purchase of the Journal is generally thought to be risky. The newspaper industry has been shedding readers and advertisers in recent years, sending newspaper stocks to historic lows and raising questions about its future. To compound matters, News Corp is paying $60 a share - a 67 per cent premium over Dow Jones''''s stock price before the bid became public.

Since making his bid for Dow Jones in April, Murdoch has said that he wants to expand The Wall Street Journal, both the digital and print editions. He wants to convert the paid-subscription website WSJ.com to a free site, to boost its audience and advertising revenue. However, in the short-term, the move could be costly.

Unfortunately for Murdoch, the troubles facing the newspaper industry have worsened in the three months since the deal was finalised at the end of July. News Corp shareholders will be watching carefully to see how he plans to get a return on their money.

The WSJ saga will also be closely watched, by the newspaper industry, where other acquisitions are underway. Tribune Co, owner of the Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune, is being bought for $8.2 billion and being taken private by Chicago real estate magnate Sam Zell. The deal closes later this month. (See: FCC chairman proposes an ownership waiver for the Tribune group)

Dramatis personae
In his less-than two-years tenure at the Dow Jones helm, Zannino, 49, got good marks from Wall Street for shaking up Dow Jones''''s business operations. But Dow Jones''''s stock price refused to budge from a narrow range before Murdoch said he wanted to buy the company.

He joined Dow Jones as chief financial officer in February 2001, when the company''''s stock was trading around $60 and the dot-com crash hadn''''t yet sent share prices plunging. He was named chief operating officer in July 2002. As COO, he launched a weekend paper on Saturdays and bought financial news website MarketWatch

In February 2006 he succeeded Peter Kann as chief executive. He created separate business units targeting consumers and business customers, and brought in several executives from other companies. He also acquired the half of Factiva that Dow Jones didn''''t already own from Reuters. It was at a breakfast with Zannino on 29 March that Murdoch expressed an interest in buying Dow Jones. Zannino leaves with a payout of around $19 million.

New CEO and News International chairman Leslie Hinton is one of Murdoch''''s longest-serving executives. News International''s British newspapers include The Times of London, News of the World and The Sun. Earlier, Hinton was CEO of News America Publishing, oversaw the New York Post, was chairman of Fox Television and president of Murdoch Magazines. Now in his early 60s, Hinton was born in Liverpool in the UK, but grew up in Australia after his parents moved there.

Australian-born Robert Thomson, 46, joined News Corp in 2002, when he became editor of The Times. Before that he was the US managing editor of the Financial Times, where he worked as a reporter and editor for many years. He started his career in Australia at a non-Murdoch newspaper.

Who runs what
Though named publisher, Thomson isn''''t expected to have control over the business side of the Journal, and will concentrate on editorial matters. Journal managing editor Marcus Brauchli and editorial page editor Paul Gigot will both report to him according to an editorial agreement that is part of the deal, to insulate the editorial and news operations of Dow Jones publications from News Corp''''s business affairs. Thomson and Brauchli are old friends, having earlier worked together in Asia - Thomson for the Financial Times and Brauchli for the Journal.

It is Murdoch that is expected to have the most impact. Though the editorial-independence agreement limits his role, he has broad powers to dictate the business strategy of the properties he owns. Murdoch has said he is focused on the Journal''s unique front page, and some of his preferences may diverge from certain longstanding traditions at the Journal.