NEW YORK (AP) -- In an unexpected shakeup, News Corp. said Tuesday that it is replacing Lex Fenwick, CEO of its Dow Jones subsidiary. The media company controlled by Rupert Murdoch said it plans to review how Dow Jones serves institutional clients.
The company named William Lewis as Dow Jones' interim CEO.
News Corp. CEO Robert Thomson said the review will include improvements to DJX, a product for institutions that includes a variety of services such as Factiva and the Dow Jones newswire.
Thomson said in a statement that "greater flexibility in its product offerings is likely in the short term." DJX, which has been in beta testing since its launch last year, has had a single price per user for its omnibus offering.
The product was meant to compete with rival Bloomberg's financial data and news services and was largely developed by Fenwick, who joined Dow Jones in February 2012 after 25 years at Bloomberg LP, where he held positions including that of CEO at Bloomberg Ventures.
The company had high hopes for DJX. Dow Jones' institutional clients account for about 30% of Dow Jones' revenue. The rest comes from consumer publications like The Wall Street Journal and Barron's magazine.
Thomson said in November that the institutional part of the business "hasn't performed to our expectations or to its potential for really almost two decades."
