News Corp. posted fiscal first-quarter profit and revenue that topped Wall Street expectations thanks to a boost from its Dow Jones and Digital Real Estate Services, as well as gains in its digital subscribers for news.
“Following a sterling performance in fiscal 2025 – one that marked a record year for profitability on a continuing operations basis – News Corp. continued to increase both revenue and profitability in the first quarter of fiscal 2026,” CEO Robert Thomson said in a statement.
The company saw revenue increases at Move, which operates Realtor.com, which drew in $152 million, a 9% increase from last year. It said it wrote off a $13 million customer receivable in its book publishing division HarperCollins, but that was partially offset by profitability from its news media divisions, which posted profit increases due to cost-saving measures and higher subscriptions.
Dow Jones’ total subscriptions rose 8% to nearly 6.4 million, driven primarily by The Wall Street Journal. As with the previous quarter, digital subscriptions grew at a faster rate, with 11% gains at the Journal in particular.
Here are the quarterly results:
Net income: $150 million, up 1% compared to $149 million last year.
Revenue: $2.14 billion, up 2% year over year, compared to $2.11 billion expected by analysts surveyed by Yahoo Finance.
Earnings per share: 20 cents per share on a diluted basis. On an adjusted basis, EPS was 22 cents, compared to 19 cents per share expected by analysts surveyed by Yahoo Finance.
On AI
Amid the explosion in the use and conversation around AI, Thomson weighed in on the issue, noting it was “patently clear that the value of IP in the age of AI is misconceived.”
“Information and sophisticated data are the essence of AI, and without these essential ingredients, AI is but empty, ignorant infrastructure,” he said. “Electricity without alacrity. Buildings without billings. Chips without chops.”
His comments come amid a debate on how content is being used to train AI models, with tech companies scraping public information to feed their large language models. Media companies have been attempting to work with these companies to license their content for training, while suing others that aren’t keen to strike deals.
“Let me be absolutely clear to every large language model, however large, however small: If you have received stolen goods, we intend to pursue you relentlessly,” Thomson said on the company’s earnings call. “You may not have done the actual stealing, but receiving stolen property is an offense in legal jurisdictions around the world, content, crime does not and will not pay.”
Thomson expects to announce further partnerships in the coming future, which he believes will benefit the company’s bottom line.
News growth
He also touted the strength of News Corp.’s various news organizations. The Wall Street Journal has an 11% surge in digital subscriptions, he said, and earnings per share at the New York Post grew 67%. The tabloid saw its advertising revenue jump 19% year-over-year, with nearly 90% of the advertising on its digital platforms.
It plans to launch its California-based “California Post” early next year.
“The buzz around the project is already audible,” he said. “We are taking advantage of the Post’s reach and influence, which expands with each passing day.”
Thomson said the company is also “testing” subscription price increases at the Journal, teasing “planned product improvements” in the coming months.
“WSJ readers do indeed recognize that they should pay a premium for a premium service,” he said.
Thomson also said the company saw a 9% revenue increase in its Factiva research platform, which was the subject of a lawsuit it filed against PRNewswire owner Cision that it settled in September. Chief Financial Officer Lavanya Chandrashekar said the settlement was “very modest,” but the company was excited to move forward with an AI-powered search feature for Factiva.
“The good news is we are bringing in new customers into that space,” she said.
