News Corp CEO Robert Thomson highlighted the success of the books that inspired “Heated Rivalry” as its book publishing division posted record quarter revenue of $633 million.
“Ice hockey stereotypes are melting away as players pursue each other and a puck,” Thomson said in a conference call with investors on Thursday.
The boost in publishing came as News Corp also saw second-quarter revenue increases in its Dow Jones division, including subscription increases at the Wall Street Journal and Barron’s, and its real estate company Move.
The company’s stock was up 2.2% in after-hours trading.
Overall, revenue rose 6% to $2.36 billion while net income slipped 21% to $242 million. When stripping out one-time items, adjusted per-share earnings were 40 cents.
Analysts projected earnings of 37 cents per share and revenue of $2.3 billion, according to Yahoo Finance.
In a note to investors, Thomson said the company was proud of its results and believed its third-quarter results would be “auspicious.”
Within Dow Jones, the company saw a 13% increase in digital-only Wall Street Journal subscriptions to reach 4.3 million subscribers. The Journal now has roughly 4.7 million subscribers, an 11% increase from the year prior. Barron’s also saw a 6% increase in digital subscribers to reach 1.42 million, while its total subscribers jumped 4% to 1.51 million.
News Corp’s news media division saw its revenues flat compared to last year, as lower ad revenue offset higher circulation and subscription revenues. Its segment EBITDA decreased by 5% due to lower contributions from News Corp Australia and the company’s investment in the New York Post ahead of last month‘s debut of the California Post. The West Coast edition launched Jan. 26.
The California Post, Thomson said on the investor call, would bring an “editorial enlightenment” to the state and was based on the “renewed profitability of the New York Post.” The company expects to make more “modest” investments in the new outlet during its third quarter.
Multiple News Corp outlets’ digital subscriber bases increased during the quarter compared to the prior year.
News Corp Australia’s base jumped to 1.168 million compared to 1.126 million, while the Times of London and the Sunday Times saw its subscribers increase to 659,000 from 616,000 the year prior. The New York Post saw fewer unique users in December 2025 (85 million) compared to December 2024 (90 million), while the Sun saw 70 million unique users during both periods.
Net income: $242 million, down 21% compared to $306 million last year. News Corp said the drop stemmed from its division REA Group’s sale of PropertyGuru the year prior.
Revenue: $2.36 billion, up 6% year over year, compared to $2.3 billion expected by analysts surveyed by Yahoo Finance.
Earnings per share: 34 cents per share on a diluted basis. On an adjusted basis, EPS was 40 cents, compared to 37 cents per share expected by analysts surveyed by Yahoo Finance.
For book publishing, the company saw its revenues increase by 6% to $633 million, 38 million, which it attributed to boosts by marquee titles such as “Wicked” author Gregory Maguire’s visual companion ahead of “Wicked: For Good” and Republican Sen. John Kennedy’s book of political observations, “How to Test Negative for Stupid.” Christian books also helped boost its revenues, as well as a $15 million impact from acquisitions. Its digital sales increased by 2%.
As he did in the last quarter, Thomson targeted the concerns over AI and said the impact of the technology has evolved and that News Corp’s audiences understand the need to pay more for higher-quality work.
“What is the point of acquiring cutting-edge semiconductors if they
are being deployed to repurpose gormless, factless, feckless content sets?” he said. “We do believe an increasing number of insightful companies understand this content contradiction and will indeed pay a premium for our premium content.”
Thomson praised the success of its real estate division Move’s Realtor.com “revival” and said the company’s three areas of focus would be digital real estate, Dow Jones and HarperCollins.
“Those businesses are traveling very well at the moment, and we will allocate cash accordingly,” he said.
