The Australian newspaper will become a stand alone division within News Corporation as part of an "aggressive and ambitious growth strategy'' for the national broadsheet.
News Ltd chairman and chief executive, John Hartigan, said a separate division would be created for The Australian, which until now has been part of Nationwide News, publishers of Sydney's The Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph.
"This announcement reflects the significant expansion of our ambitions for The Australian,'' Mr Hartigan said in a statement on Tuesday.
"By creating a separate division and deploying more resources, we aim to enter an unprecedented era of growth.''
In addition to selling more papers, Mr Hartigan said News Ltd also wanted to expand The Australian's presence online, on mobile phones and on "new platforms''.
Start of sidebar. Skip to end of sidebar.
End of sidebar. Return to start of sidebar.
News has appointed Richard Freudenstein as chief executive of the new division, to report to Mr Hartigan.
Mr Freudenstein currently is chief executive of News' digital division, News Digital Media (the publisher of news.com.au). He will remain in that position, as well as assuming responsibility for The Australian.
Nick Leeder has been appointed deputy chief executive, leaving his current post as chief operating officer of News Digital Media.
The Australian's editor-in-chief, Chris Mitchell, and the paper's daily and weekend editors, Paul Whittaker and Nick Cater, will remain in their roles.
The Australian recorded national weekday sales of 134,100 in the September quarter last year, according to figures from the Audit Bureau of Circulations in November.
This was down 4.2 per cent from the prior corresponding period.
Sales of The Weekend Australian, published on Saturday, were down 1.6 per cent at 302,115.
At 13:15 AEDT, shares in parent company, News Corporation (the parent company of the publisher of news.com.au), were down 18 cents, or 1.01 per cent, at $17.68.
News Corp's non-voting scrip was down 11 cents, or 0.72 per cent, at $15.15.
Dollar closes firmerNissan sales improve 21 per cent over year-earlier period
