Murdoch: US advertising markets improving

News Corp chief executive Rupert Murdoch believes US advertising markets are “much better than they were four months ago”.

Speaking at a media conference on Tuesday, Murdoch also said that the Wall Street Journal will begin charging for access on mobiles, with newspaper subscribers paying $1 a week, while others will pay $2.

He added that News Corp is considering whether to charge online subscriptions to Hulu, the video website it launched with NBC Universal

“I’m not an economist, but my guess is that the consensus is about right, and [the economy is] going to get a nice bump, and then it will settle back to a fairly slow recovery,” said Murdoch.

He added that he was happy News Corp did not listen to analysts and hedge-fund managers who advised the company to take on debt and buy back shares when the economy was booming.

“If we had followed their advice, we’d be billions [of dollars] more in debt now,” he said. “We’re feeling very safe now.”