Credit: Henry Becker via Unsplash
News Corp reported an 11% increase in revenue to $US2.34 billion in the June quarter, driven by growth in Digital Real Estate Services, Book Publishing and financial publisher Dow Jones.
The global media group said its News Media unit, including its Australian titles, benefited from incremental content licensing revenue and the World Cup. Revenue was 5% higher at $US574 million.
Overall advertising revenue, including that from Dow Jones, grew 3% to $US363 million.
The company reported full year to June total revenue of $US9.03 billion, a 7% increase.
CEO Robert Thomson said the June quarter performance was the highest profitability on record.
Fourth quarter net income from continuing operations soared 167% to $US230 million, while earnings per share were $0.33, up from $0.09.
“Our record performance is a product of sustained focus on, and reinvestment in, News Corp’s core growth engines and our transformation to a digital-first company underpinned by insightful and trusted content,” Thomson said.
“Much of the world is being reshaped by artificial intelligence, but artificial intelligence itself is only as useful and only as trustworthy as the quality of its inputs.
“We believe that makes News Corp an absolutely critical participant in the emerging AI ecosystem.
“Without our journalists, our authors, our data, our brands and our professional expertise, users would be drowning in a slimy sea of AI slop.
“We have trusted content relationships with OpenAI and Meta, and are in advanced discussions with several other companies.
“However, under our woo and sue approach, we are taking aggressive action against those who pilfer and profit from our work.
“We will pursue those pilferers, and companies that are clients of these crass kleptomaniacs should know they are patently in possession of stolen goods.”
In the News Media division, revenue increased 5%, mainly due to a $28 million, or 5%, positive impact from foreign currency fluctuations. Without that revenue would be flat.
Circulation and subscription revenues increased $19 million, or 7%, compared to the prior year, due to a $13 million, or 5%, positive impact from foreign currency fluctuations, increased cover and subscription pricing and higher content licensing revenues, partially offset by print volume declines.
Advertising revenue fell $1 million, compared to the prior year, primarily due to lower print advertising revenues, mostly offset by a $9 million, or 5%, positive impact from foreign currency fluctuations.
Results also included a benefit at News Broadcasting related to the FIFA World Cup.
Digital revenues represented 41% of News Media revenue in the quarter, compared to 38% in the prior year, and represented 39% of the combined revenues of the newspaper mastheads.
Digital subscribers at News Corp Australia were 1,162,000 (981,000 for news mastheads), compared to 1,166,000 (993,000 for news mastheads).
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