News Corp said on Tuesday that it has formed a new unit to share journalism across all its properties, including The Wall Street Journal, the New York Post, Fox News and The Times of London.

Rupert Murdoch's international media conglomerate said that John Moody, executive vice president of news editorial at Fox News, will run the unit and report to Murdoch.

Michael Clemente, who joined Fox this year after 27 years at Walt Disney Co's ABC News, will report to Fox Chief Executive Roger Ailes.

News Corp did not offer examples of how the news-sharing unit will operate.

Moody will work with news chiefs at News Corp's properties to improve News Corp's newsgathering efficiency and find ways to cut costs, News Corp said in a statement. Moody said it was too early to provide examples of how this will work.

News Corp, which owns many other properties including the MySpace online social network, book publisher HarperCollins and satellite television provider Sky Italia, has been trying to cut costs as an economic recession crimps ad spending.

One early example of how news properties could share their work came last weekend.

Kara Swisher, proprietor of the Boomtown Blog on Dow Jones & Co's All Things Digital technology news website broke the news that Yahoo Inc Chief Executive Carol Bartz and Microsoft Corp Chief Executive Steve Ballmer were discussing an advertising partnership.

Her exclusive news also ran as a top story on The Wall Street Journal's website. A Journal article later replaced the news that Swisher broke.

Moody did not say whether all stories at one news site would be valid for inclusion on another.

Murdoch's newspapers include the highbrow Journal as well as the racy New York Post. They also include The Sun in London, which features topless women on its famous Page 3 section.

It also could challenge editors at various outlets to reconcile policies about sourcing information, reporting on rumors and other issues that occupy journalism ethics experts.

(Reporting by Robert MacMillan; editing by Richard Chang)

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