News Corp veteran William Lewis to lead Dow Jones turnaround bid

News Corp made the interim appointment of Dow Jones chief executive William Lewis permanent on Thursday as the company opted for a veteran of Rupert Murdoch's empire to oversee a turnaround effort.

Lewis, 45, was named to lead Dow Jones, publisher of The Wall Street Journal, on an interim basis on January 21 after the abrupt departure of Lex Fenwick, who was formerly chief executive of rival Bloomberg.

Lewis, a onetime Financial Times mergers and acquisitions reporter, will have his work cut out repairing relations with Dow Jones' core customer base of banks, hedge funds and retail brokers and stopping the loss of sales.

News Corp is overhauling Dow Jones' institutional products following the exit of Fenwick, who had implemented a one-size-fits-all strategy with a bundled product known as DJX with little room for price negotiation.

"We've adjusted the product, we've adjusted the pitch and we've adjusted the pricing to suit our customers' needs," Robert Thomson, chief executive of News Corp said on a conference call with analysts.

"What Will Lewis and the team have done in the last few months is go out and frankly talk to customers and find out what they want from us."

News Corp chief financial officer Bedi Singh said during an earnings call on Thursday that Dow Jones' institutional sales fell US$20 million in the first quarter.