News Corp beats revenue estimates as digital subscriptions grow

News Corp beat Wall Street estimates for fourth-quarter earnings on Thursday, boosted in part by growth in digital subscriptions at its Dow Jones business.

The New York-based media giant, which owns The Post, Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones, said revenue in the quarter ended June 30 rose 6% to $2.58 billion, compared with $2.43 billion a year earlier. before.

The company credited most of the 4% rise in revenue to its Dow Jones division, which includes The Journal, Barron’s and Market Watch.

Net income for the quarter came in at $71 million, or 9 cents per share, compared with a net loss of $32 million, or one penny per share, a year earlier. Adjusted EPS was equal to 17 cents. Wall Street expected EPS of 16 cents on revenue of $2.49 billion.

For the year, News Corp reported earnings of $266 million, or 46 cents per share. Revenue was $10.09 billion.

News Corp’s share price closed at $27.76. It is up 11% in the last three months and 34% over the past year.

The company signed a multi-year partnership with the London Stock Exchange Group last month and partnered with Sam Altman-led OpenAI in May.

“Our historic agreement with OpenAI is not only expected to be profitable, but will enable us to work closely with a trusted and distinguished partner to create a future for professional and origin journalism,” said News Corp CEO, Robert Thomson.

“In the meantime, we have begun taking legal action against AI aggressors, the scandalous aggregators who are predatory in confiscating our content. “Open source” can never be an excuse for “open slather”.

The OpenAI deal will allow the creator of ChatGPT to use current and archived content produced by News Corp-owned media outlets to answer user questions and train its AI models.

The five-year deal could be worth more than $250 million in cash and credit for using OpenAI technology, the Wall Street Journal reported in May.

Thomson also thanks those who helped secure the release of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who had been imprisoned in Russia since March 2023.

“I want to express our sincere gratitude to everyone who contributed to the emancipation of Evan Gershkovich,” Thomson said.

“His freedom was made possible by the concerted efforts of concerned, principled people who realized that his imprisonment was unjust and immoral. Many thanks to our leaders at Dow Jones and News Corp who campaigned vigorously for Evan, and to the US Government and other enlightened governments whose divine interventions played a major role in his release.