Dow Jones to part with tech news site AllThingsD

The Wall Street Journal, part of Rupert Murdoch's media empire, said Thursday it would split with the technology news website AllThingsD by the end of the year.

The news comes amid a major reorganization in Murdoch's holdings, following a split of his News Corp into two separate groups.

A statement from Dow Jones, the operating unit for The Wall Street Journal, said the agreement between the newspaper and website would be terminated.

"Both parties have decided not to renew the agreement when the contract expires at the end of this year," the statement said.

Wall Street Journal editor in chief Gerard Baker said the newspaper would beef up its technology coverage following the departure of the AllThingsD team.

"We plan to embark on a major global expansion of our technology coverage, which will include adding 20 reviewers, bloggers, visual journalists, editors and reporters covering digital," Baker said.

"As part of this global push, we will also be expanding our conference franchise to include an international technology conference and building a new digital home for our first-class technology news and product reviews on The Wall Street Journal Digital Network."

News reports have said the AllThingsD founders Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher were seeking to maintain the website with fresh funding.

Another technology website, TechCrunch, said its parent AOL may be interested in the operation, but that the AllThingsD brand remains with Dow Jones for the time being.

© 2013 AFP