WASHINGTON - US media is reporting the board of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation has approved the plan to split the company into two separate businesses.
The Wall Street Journal, which is owned by News Corp, reports the company is going ahead with splitting its television and movie operations away from its newspaper and publishing business.
Major shareholders have apparently pushed Mr Murdoch into hiving the publishing business away from the more profitable Fox empire.
The publishing arm has little growth and accounts for as little as 10 per cent of the company's overall cash flow.
Shareholders have also been pushing for News Corp to get rid of its newspaper business ever since the UK phone-hacking scandal forced the company to drop its proposed acquisition of pay-TV group BSkyB.
Many investors have said they favour chief operating officer Chase Carey to take the chief executive job running the entertainment business, perhaps with Mr Murdoch as chairman.
Mr Murdoch's children Elizabeth and James, both senior News Corp executives, are expected to stay with the entertainment unit.
It is less clear who would run the publishing business, with options including Mr Murdoch himself, the return of his eldest son Lachlan to an executive role, or Joel Klein, the head of News Corp's fledgling education business.
The report says a formal statement will be released today.