Wall Street Journal row adds to pressure of Murdoch

The row over a European circulation deal at the Wall Street Journal will give further ammunition to News Corp shareholders who want owner Rupert Murdoch to quit newspapers, City analysts said today.

WSJ Europe publisher Andrew Langhoff resigned after he sold cut-price copies for as little as one US cent each to a commercial partner, Executive Learning Partnership, and the paper then ran subsequent editorial coverage about ELP.

Dow Jones, the News Corp subsidiary that owns the WSJ, rejected claims the circulation move, which boosted sales by as much as 16,000 copies a day, was a "scam" that could deceive advertisers. Dow Jones said the UK's Audit Bureau of Circulation approved the deal and Langhoff only quit because it "could give the impression that news coverage can be influenced by commercial relationships".

The circulation deal was said to have begun in January 2008 - one month after James Murdoch became News Corp Europe boss and Robert Thomson, ex-editor of The Times in London, became Dow Jones publisher and later WSJ editor-in-chief in America.

There is no suggestion that Murdoch or Thomson are implicated. A source close to News Corp maintained that James Murdoch did not have responsibility for Dow Jones in Europe until he became deputy chief operating officer in April 2011.

Murdoch is facing mounting calls to quit as a News Corp director and BSkyB chairman because of the UK hacking scandal.

One analyst who asked not to be named said: "People around Rupert Murdoch may feel that newspapers are more trouble than their worth. Will News Corp own newspapers in 10 years' time? I think they are much more likely to own Sky."