Dow Jones & Co. Chief Executive Les Hinton resigned late Friday, as the top executive at News Corp. 's financial publishing unit sought to contain the damage from the company's British tabloid scandal, which began while he oversaw the company's U.K. newspaper operations.

Mr. Hinton said that he was "ignorant of what apparently happened" at the company's tabloid newspapers earlier in the decade. He characterized his lack of knowledge as "irrelevant" and said it was "proper" for him to step down.

Mr. Hinton's announcement came hours after Rebekah Brooks, the embattled chief executive of News International, News Corp.'s U.K. newspaper unit, resigned. She acknowledged the reputation of the company was "at risk."

The resignations were part of an aggressive new damage-control campaign by the media company, which also publishes The Wall Street Journal.

The company has been besieged for weeks by calls for the ouster of Ms. Brooks, and questions about Mr. Hinton's knowledge of techniques used by reporters at News Corp.'s News of the World weekly tabloid. The scandal focuses primarily on allegations that employees of News of the World illegally intercepted mobile-phone voice mails and bribed police.