HarperCollins to Cut 420 Jobs

News Corp. said it is cutting 420 jobs at its New York-based HarperCollins book publishing unit and that it will take a one-time charge of $270 million for restructuring the troubled operation. But the huge media company, which is controlled by Rupert Murdoch, said it has no plans to sell HarperCollins after a yearlong effort to restructure the book publisher. News Corp. acknowledged that it has received “expressions of interest” about its businesses, including HarperCollins and was issuing a statement “as a result of unusual speculation in the media about the future of HarperCollins.” “That’s a fairly significant write-down,” said Chris Dixon, an analyst at PaineWebber. “There are clearly a number of problems at HarperCollins.” A spokesman said the write-off will reflect a mixture of canceling and buying out author contracts and of writing off inventories of unsold books. News Corp. said about 220 jobs have already been cut and that 200 more will be eliminated, 40 of them in the U.S.