News Corp. saw its third fiscal quarter revenues reach $2.19 billion, a 9% increase driven by growth at Wall Street Journal publisher Dow Jones, its online real estate services division and its book publishing sector.
“The third quarter was compelling evidence of the transformation of our business, and demonstrated the robustness of our core growth engines, which we expect will propel us towards a strong fiscal finish,” CEO Robert Thomson said in a statement.
- Net income: $121 million, up 13% compared to $107 million last year.
- Revenue: $2.19 billion, up 9% year over year, compared to $2.11 billion expected by analysts surveyed by Yahoo Finance.
- Earnings per share: 16 cents per share on a diluted basis. On an adjusted basis, EPS was 21 cents, compared to 20 cents per share expected by analysts surveyed by Yahoo Finance.
Dow Jones‘ revenues reached $619 million, an 8% growth from the same period last year. The Journal saw its total subscriptions grow 8% compared to last year, totallng at 4.7 million average subscriptions, while its digital-only subscriptions grew 11% to 4.3 million. Barron’s also saw increases in total subscriptions (up 3%, at 1.53 million) and digital only (up 5%, 1.44 million).
Overall, its growth was boosted by a 19% increase in its risk and compliance division, which saw its revenues hit $100 million.
Its digital real estate services division saw its revenues increase by $67 million (up 17% over last year) due to boosts at Realtor.com owner Move and REA Group. Its book publishing divsion also saw its revenues increase by $41 million (up 8% over last year) due to the success of Rachel Reid’s “Game Changers” series, which inspired the Crave and HBO Max show “Heated Rivalry.”
Costs related to launching the California Post during the quarter and less contribution from News UK impacted the performance of News Corp’s news media division, though the sector still saw an increase in revenues of $24 million (up 5% over last year).
Thomson reiterated his continued skepticism of AI companies during the company‘s earnings call, warning of several “baleful bad-boy bots” created by digital firms that were scraping the company’s content.
Still, he said the content’s value was reflected in the content licensing deal it struck with Meta in March, which followed its deal with OpenAI, and it is negotiating other AI-related deals with companies that “recognize the preciousness of our provenance.” News Corp. expects to score some funds from the $1.5 billion settlement Anthropic struck with authors and publishers last year, Thomson said.
“Semmiconductors are inputs, energy is an input, and editorial is an absolutely essential input,” Thomson said. “AI engines require information and they need constant updates to remain relevant, otherwise, they are merely retrospective. Few companies on the planet have the depth of archive and the immediacy of contemporary content that we can offer across borders and across segments.”
More to come…