News Corp earnings up
Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp has lifted first quarter earnings despite a slide in revenues from its core newspaper business.
News Corp’s total revenues rose four per cent to $US2.15 billion ($A2.33 billion) in the three months to September 30.
Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation climbed 21 per cent to $US170 million ($A184 million) following a strong performance by the media group’s book publishing, online real estate and education businesses.
Revenues at News Corp’s newspapers, which include The Advertiser, The Australian, The Herald Sun, The Times and The Sun, dropped three per cent.
Its Australian newspaper revenues were relatively flat after modest falls in advertising revenues and favourable foreign exchange fluctuations.
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Total circulation and subscription revenues dropped one per cent, partly as a result of the sale in September 2013 of the Dow Jones Local Media Group (LMG), which had 33 publications.
Those drops were partly offset by newspaper cover price rises for several of News Corp’s Australian and British newspapers.
The division’s EBITDA plunged 21 per cent to $US105 million following revenue weakness at Dow Jones, the sale of LMG and the relocation of News’ London headquarters.
News Corp said earnings from its Australian operations had risen, but did not say by how much.
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News Corp chief executive Robert Thomson said the group had seen a “tangible improvement in our newspaper business in Australia”.
The Times and The Wall Street Journal had also enjoyed circulation revenue gains.
“Our digital offerings are expanding in reach and depth, while our global platform has been bolstered in books, online real estate and business information and analysis,” he said on Thursday.
“Overall, the results indicate that our stated mission of building on the company’s proud history and of focusing on digital and global expansion is very much on course.”
News Corp’s book publishing revenues soared by nearly a quarter, lifting earnings by 28 per cent to $US55 million ($A59.5 million).
The other star performer for the quarter was News Corp’s digital real estate business, which includes realestate.com.au in Australia.
Aided by higher pricing, earnings rose 30 per cent to $US57 million ($A62 million).
Elsewhere, earnings from pay TV operator Foxtel, which is half-owned by News Corp, rose by $US4 million to $US225 million ($A243 million) as subscriber revenue growth offset higher operating costs.
Total closing subscribers rose five per cent to 2.6 million.
Meanwhile, News Corp paid out another $US14 million ($A15 million) in relation to the UK newspaper hacking scandal.
