By Anya George Tharakan
(Reuters) - News Corp (O:NWSA), owner of the Wall Street Journal, is carrying out a major reorganization at its Dow Jones news publishing unit that will involve job cuts and shifting resources to digital media.
Dow Jones, which has about 5,000 employees worldwide, will close bureaus in Prague and Helsinki and cut jobs in bureaus in Europe and Asia, Gerard Baker, editor-in-chief of Dow Jones and the WSJ, said in a staff memo seen by Reuters on Thursday.
"The company has not given us a firm number of the positions cut yet," Timothy Martell, a representative of the Independent Association of Publishers' Employees, told Reuters.
Fewer than 30 jobs could be cut on Thursday but the number could touch 100 in the months to come, Martell said.
Dow Jones will be increasing headcount in areas such as social media engagement and audience data analytics in a bid to radically upgrade digital capabilities, the memo said.
Revenue from News Corp's news and information business, which accounts for about 65 percent of overall revenue, declined 9 percent to $1.35 billion in the latest quarter.
The company, controlled by Rupert Murdoch, has been diversifying into other areas, most notably digital real estate services.
Dow Jones was not immediately available for comment.
The New York Times first reported the restructuring.