News Corp Surpasses Revenue Forecasts with Growth in Digital Subscriptions

News Corp Wall Street estimates for fourth-quarter revenue on Thursday, pushed in part by digital subscription improvements at its Dow Jones business. 

The New York-based media giant, owner of the Post, The Wall Street Journal, and Dow Jones, reported a 6% revenue raise for the quarter ending June 30, reaching $2.58 billion, up from last year.

The company ascribed much of this revenue growth to a 4% rise in its Dow Jones division, which surrounds The Journal, Barron’s and MarketWatch.

For the quarter, net income amounted to $71 million, or 9 cents per share, reversing a net loss of $32 million, or i cent per share, from the previous year. Adjusted EPS was 17 cents, exceptionally Wall Street’s expectation of 16 cents, with revenue of $2.58 billion surpassing the forecast of $ 2.49 billion. 

For the full year, News Corp reported a profit of $266 million, or 46 cents per share, on revenue of $ 10.09 billion.

News Corp stock closed at $27.76, reflecting an 11% increase over the past three months and an impressive 34% rise over the past year.

Last month, the company entered into a multi-year partnership with the London Stock Exchange Group and teamed up with Sam Altman-led OpenAI in May. 

“Our landmark agreement with OpenAI is not only expected to be lucrative, but will enable us to work closely with a trusted, pre-eminent partner to fashion a future for professional journalism and for provenance,” News Corp CEO Robert Thomson said.

“Meanwhile, we have begun to take legal steps against AI aggressors, the egregious aggregators, who are predatory in the confiscation of our content. ‘Open source’ can never be a justification for ‘open slather.’”

The pact with OpenAI authorizes the ChatGPT creator to access both current and archived content from News Corp-owned outlets for answering user queries and training its AI models. According to a Wall Street Journal report in May, the five-year deal could be valued at over $250 million in cash and credits for using OpenAI technology. 

Thomson also expressed gratitude to those who assisted in securing the release of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who had been detained in Russia since March 2023.

“I would like to express our sincere gratitude to all who contributed to the emancipation of Evan Gershkovich,” Thomson said.

“His freedom was made possible by the concerted efforts of concerned, principled people who recognized that his incarceration 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 pivotal role in his release.”