Global media group News Corp has outlined a pathway to $1 billion in annual Dow Jones earnings within five years, detailing the transformation of the business at an investor briefing.
Dow Jones revenue is now 82% digital, up from 60% in fiscal 2018, and 80% recurring, up from 69%.
The business has delivered 17% compound annual segment EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortisation) growth over that period, with margin nearly doubling to 25.2%.
The pathway to $1 billion EBITDA relies on accelerating the risk and energy businesses, expanding direct-to-consumer offerings, focusing on high-margin enterprise news and maintaining cost discipline.
"News Corp has spent the last decade structurally reinventing itself into a majority digital enterprise, successfully pivoting from a reliance on advertising to a high-growth model defined by recurring revenues and record profitability," said Robert Thomson, chief executive of News Corp.
"In this Age of AI, we are an Input company. Just as semiconductors and energy power the physical world, our authoritative editorial is an essential input for the digital world."
"As the world is seeing more change than it has in generations — from geopolitics and markets to energy and technology — demand for reliable news, data and intelligence is greater than ever," said Almar Latour, CEO of Dow Jones and publisher of The Wall Street Journal.
"As AI models are rippling from industry to industry, their output is only as good as their input, which is where Dow Jones comes in."
Dow Jones has been a key driver of News Corp's 11 successive quarters of year-over-year total segment EBITDA growth, alongside digital real estate services and book publishing.
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