Leslie Frank "Les" Hinton has resigned as CEO of Dow Jones & Company over the unfolding journalistic ethics scandal at the News Corporation subsidiary - News International.

Hinton is a British-American journalist and businessman, who was born in the UK and became a United States citizen in 1986. He was appointed CEO of Dow Jones & Company in December 2007, after its acquisition by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. The company is the publisher of the Wall Street Journal.

Hinton, who is known as Murdoch's right hand and has worked for him for more than 50 years, told staff at the Wall Street Journal he had no option but to resign.

"It is a deeply, deeply sad day for me. When I left News International in December 2007, I believed that the rotten element at the News of the World (NoW) had been eliminated. That I was ignorant of what apparently happened is irrelevant. I feel it is proper for me to resign from News Corp," he wrote in a letter to staff.

Public outcry against Murdoch and News International, the British arm of his media company grew after a report two weeks ago that the News of the World tabloid had hacked into the phones of relatives of servicemen, victims of terrorist attacks and of other crimes, including of teenage murder victim Milly Dowler in 2002, and may have impeded a police investigation into her disappearance.

News Corporation is also investigated on suspicions it had hacked phones of victims of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack on the US.

Hinton headed News International when the phone-hacking allegations first arose.

His resignation comes just hours after the resignation of his successor in the UK, Rebekah Brooks.