News Corp’s Quarterly Revenues Exceed Expectations, Reaching $2.18 Billion

News Corp, a media company that owns among others the Wall Street Journal, achieved a revenue of $2.18 billion in the last quarter of the previous year, which is 3 percent higher than in the same period a year earlier, with the growth of online business compensating for the decline in advertising revenues.

Total revenues exceeded analysts’ expectations, who had on average anticipated that News Corp would generate revenue of $2.13 billion. As a result, the company’s net loss was reduced in that quarter to $83 million, compared to $289 million a year earlier.

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News Corp clarified that they incurred a cost of $174 million related to new U.S. tax laws, and if this one-time expense is excluded, News operated at a profit.

News Corp’s CEO Robert Thomson attributed the strong performance to the corporation’s strategy “to become increasingly digital and global, the discipline of our financial management, our commitment to premium content, and the high quality and reliability of news.”

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Revenues from news and information services, responsible for about two-thirds of News’s total revenue, stagnated compared to the same period a year earlier, at $1.3 billion. Advertising revenues, on the other hand, fell by 6 percent, but this decline was offset by a similar increase in circulation and subscription revenues.

Dow Jones, also part of the News corporation, is primarily responsible for the increase in subscriptions, thanks to a 28.6 percent rise in the number of digital subscribers to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), to approximately 1.4 million.

News Corp’s revenues from online real estate business surged in the last quarter of the previous year by about 21 percent, to 292 kuna. Earlier, the New York Times, a rival of WSJ, reported strong revenue growth, driven by the increase in its online business.