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NEW YORK, NY: The Wall Street Journal is looking for a creative agency for an assignment. The search, which is being conducted by MediaLink, L.A., has been spearheaded by Hamish McLennan, the former chief executive of Young & Rubicam, who joined WSJ parent News Corp. last February as evp, office of the chairman, sources said.

Michael Kassan, CEO of MediaLink, declined comment and referred calls to theJournal. A rep there wouldn’t confirm that a search is underway but said the company “work[s] with a ton of different agencies all the time.” Tracy David, head of marketing at Dow Jones, could not be reached for comment.

The scope of the assignment could not be determined. The news organization’s most recent lead agency was mcgarrybowen but sources said that the Dentsu shop stopped working on the business earlier this year and declined to participate in the current assignment review. Mcgarrybowen declined to comment.

It’s not known which other shops have been contacted.

Past WSJ agency searches have centered around new initiatives, such as when theJournal hired Berlin Cameron in 2005 to promote the launch of the paper’s weekend edition. Sources said the Journal’s marketing priorities are typically determined by whichever project has corporate funding.

MediaLink worked for News Corp. previously and the firm’s senior management includes Sandy Grushow, who worked for News Corp.’s Fox Network for more than 20 years. Grushow, who is MediaLink’s chief content officer, joined the company in January 2010.

This week, News Corp. revealed major details of changes at the company when it splits into two entities in the new year. The smaller of the two News Corp. companies, which will house the company’s newspapers and other publishing interests, will be headed by Robert Thomson, currently chief of Dow Jones and editor-in-chief of the Journal.  (The other operating unit is the larger Fox Group which will contain TV networks and movie studios.

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