Companies
12/08/2018

$1.4bn Loss Reported By News Corp Worldwide But Notes Increase In Paid Subscriptions




An upbeat assessment for the digital news and real estate assets of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp was used by the company to waive off the latest annual loss that the firm has incurred.
 
A net loss of $1.4 billion for fiscal year 2017/18 was reported by the worldwide publishing group which was a larger net loss compared to what the company had incurred a year earlier which was at $643 million.
 
However, the results were dented by the accounting writedowns for the fiscal year that included the writedown worth $998 million against the consolidation deal for Foxtel and Fox Sports in Australia.
 
A year of “operational and transformational success” had been experienced by the group, said Robert Thomson, the chief executive, of the firm and added that the firm had made substantial increase in the revenues generated from its business of book publishing that was led by Harper Collins and the sale growth from the online real estate businesses like realestate.com.
 
“We also saw meaningful operational improvements at the news and information services segment led by higher digital paid subscribers and disciplined cost initiatives, notably in Australia,” he said in a statement on Friday.
 
The increase in the number of paid digital subscribers at UK mastheads such as the Times and the Sunday Times were highlighted by him. He also applauded the significant growth at the Wall Street Journal.
 
No mention of the performance of the group’s titles in Australia, such as the Australian and the Herald Sun was made by him in the report and the statement. However, the earnings report that the company foiled with the stock market claimed that there had been an increase in the number of paid subscriptions for its digital media in Australia from 363,600 in the previous year to 415,600 in the recently ended fiscal year.
 
There was an 11 per cent increase in the total revenues of the group which stood at $9.01 billion and there was an increase of 21 per cent in the earnings before interest tax and depreciation for the group at $1.07 billion.
 
“Digital real estate services continue to flourish,” Thomson said while referring to the increase of 19 per cent in the revenue for the last quarter driven by strong performance in the Australian business, REA Group.
 
“HarperCollins’ success underscores the importance of intelligent editors and great writers in creating premium content. Algorithms are, as yet, unable to write empathetic, compelling books.”
 
News Corp underwent a restructuring in its business set up about five years ago where the entertainment business of the group was spun off into a separate company – different from the publishing businesses of the group which included Harper Collins.
 
“We are marking five years since our separation and are confident News Corp has a lustrous future, built on a strong digital and global foundation,” said Thomson.
 
(Source:www.theguardian.com)

Christopher J. Mitchell
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