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Category: Company News / Media / Print Media

News Corp profit boosted by real estate, books

Tuesday, 9 Aug 2016 09:09:02 | Sue Lannin

News Corporation chief Rupert Murdoch leaves a Manhattan office building following meetings with several key members of the Bancroft family who control Dow Jones and Co. (Mike Segar : Reuters)

News Corporation has reported a rise in quarterly profit, with higher income from its digital real estate unit and book publishing arm Harper Collins.

The media giant made a net profit in the fourth quarter of $US89 million, up from a $US379 million loss in 2015, as revenue increased 5 per cent.

The rise in quarterly net profit was helped by a $US122-million legal settlement after a News Corporation real estate subsidiary, Move, sued Zillow over alleged theft of trade secrets by Zillow executives who used to work at Move.

Annual net profit swung from a loss in 2015 of $US149 million to a profit in 2016 of $US177 million, although full-year revenue slipped because of lower advertising income.

Earnings from News Corp's Digital Real Estate Services group, which includes website realtor.com and digital property advertising group REA, increased by 21 per cent over the quarter from the same time a year ago.

REA Group, which owns website realestate.com.au, saw its annual net profit rise by 20 per cent to nearly $253 million in 2016 from $210 million in 2015 on an increase in revenue.

REA said it had record audience and engagement in Australia over the year, despite lower residential home listings in the second half of the 2016 financial year.

It also expanded into South-East Asia by buying iProperty Group.

Revenue at book publishing business Harper Collins also rose, driven by sales of titles such as The Nest by Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney and The Rainbow Comes and Goes by US journalist Anderson Cooper.

Real estate 'to become the biggest contributor'

In a statement, News Corp chief executive Robert Thomson said the media firm had become more digital and more global.

"Since the advent of the new News three years ago, revenue at digital real estate services has more than doubled, and it is expected to become the biggest contributor to EBITDA [pre-tax earnings] in the future thanks to the ongoing success of REA and the rapid growth of realtor.com in the US," he said.

"While global print ad trends remain challenging at our news and information segment, we are continuing our aggressive growth in digital, which now accounts for 23 per cent of segment revenues, up from 19 per cent last year."

News Corp said digital subscriptions for its newspapers increased by 45 per cent, while print sales also rose.

Digital only subscribers rose to 948,000 for the Wall Street Journal compared to 753,000 in 2015.

News Corporation said that The Australian newspaper increased its digital subscriptions by 47,100 from 225,600 in June 2015 to 272,700 in June 2016.

UK newspapers The Times and Sunday Times only saw their digital subscriptions rise marginally, from 172,000 in June 2015 to 182,500 in June 2016.

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