James Murdoch is stepping down as executive chair of News International, the company said today.
Rupert Murdoch said in a statement on Wednesday his son had made "lasting contributions" to News International and would focus on "pay-TV businesses and broader international operations.”
"We are all grateful for James' leadership at News International and across Europe and Asia, where he has made lasting contributions to the group's strategy in paid digital content and its efforts to improve and enhance governance programs.
“He has demonstrated leadership and continues to create great value at Star TV, Sky Deutschland, Sky Italia, and BSkyB. Now that he has moved to New York, James will continue to assume a variety of essential corporate leadership mandates, with particular focus on important pay-TV businesses and broader international operations.”
James Murdoch added he appreciated the "dedication" of his colleagues: “I deeply appreciate the dedication of my many talented colleagues at News International who work tirelessly to inform the public and am confident about the tremendous momentum we have achieved under the leadership of my father and Tom Mockridge.”
Murdoch began his job in 2007 after joining News Corp from BSkyB. He was at the top of the company as the phone hacking scandal deepened.
Martin Moore, of the Hacked Off Campaign told The Huffington Post UK Murdoch's decision was a symbolic move that was being "overplayed": "I think it's a non-story. He's effectively left last year. He was planning to go to New York from before July last year. It was postponed in fact because of what happened in July.
"We still don't know what James did and didn't know last year. It's a distraction from the important stuff. We learned on Monday that according to the head of the police operation there was a culture of illegal payments which were sanctioned at a senior level at The Sun. That's something that will have a lot more repercussion that the symbolic resignation of James Murdoch."
Anti-phone hacking campaigner and Labour MP Chris Bryant said Murdoch leaves "under a dark cloud", telling BBC News he believed Murdoch was "fully conscious of the cover-up that was being mounted" during the News of the World phone hacking scandal.
Asked if he believed if Murdoch had lied, he said: "I believe that he has not told the whole truth, certainly."
"About James Murdoch, I think this is a company, frankly, News International which has sort of fallen off the edge of the cliff and is now just hanging onto a single branch before falling off to the rocks beneath it."
Bryant said he still had questions to answer despite the change in role and was still BSkyB chairman.
Labour's deputy leader Harriet Harman said he had "no option but to go" after "shocking" revelations at Leveson this week.
"The practices at News International have stained the proud tradition of the British press. We must ensure that all offences are brought to justice and that a proper framework for press complaints is established.
"But never again must we allow any individual or organisation to acquire such a concentration of power when it comes to media ownership.
"Labour supports a robust, free and independent press but one which abides by the law and the press complaints code."
Following the news News Corporation shares rose 2% on Wall Street.
The chairman of parliament's culture, media and sport select committee John Whittingdale said the decision may be connected to News Corp's "decision to remain in the UK, and to demonstrate that the people now running the company are completely unconnected in any way with what has happened over the course of the last few years."
He told Sky News: "Clearly James Murdoch was a key person, he was running the company during the time that a lot of these payments were being made, and therefore if News International wanted to move on to start afresh, then I think obviously, his presence was always going to be a problem for them."
FT media correspondent Ben Fenton tweeted Murdoch's move was "significant":
And former Sunday Times editor Andrew Neil tweeted:
Murdoch resigned as director of News Group Newspapers and Times Newspapers Ltd in September.
In December Murdoch said in a letter to the Commons culture, media and sport committee he received emails suggesting phone hacking was rife at News of the World, but said he did not read the messages.