News Corp Australian newspaper revenues drop 21 per cent
News Corp’s Australian newspaper revenues dropped by 21 per cent year on year, the company’s third quarter financial results reveal.
The company has blamed the revenue declines on foreign currency fluctuations, with the Australian dollar dropping in value in recent months, and “continued revenue weakness in the Australian market”, as well as the sale of the Dow Jones Local Media Group, the company reported.
Total revenue for the company dropped by five per cent to $2.08bn compared with $2.18bn in the previous year.
Robert Thompson, CEO of News Corp, said: “The past quarter marked another robust stride in the direction of expanding our digital and international businesses, which was the goal we articulated on our investor day last year.”
Total segment earnings is reported to be $175m compared to $169m in the prior year and adjusted earnings per share were $0.11 compared to $0.13 the year before, which included a non-taxable gain on the Sky Network Television Ltd transaction.
Thompson said News Corp’s planned acquisition of Harlequin will see the company benefit from its commercial infrastructure and extend the global reach of publisher HarperCollins and the broader News Corp.
“We are already reaping benefits from the acquisition of Storyful, which is powering a new social newswire and creating video content communities around our mastheads, whose digital transition is continuing apace. The improved results underscore the strength and diversity of our portfolio. It is also patent athat we have been consistently disciplined on costs across the company and around the globe, leading to an improvement in our profitability,” Thomson said.
Foxtel showed an increase in operating income of $14m for the quarter, taking it to $132m, with 2.6m subscribers to the service and churn down to 13.1 per cent from 14.9 per cent.
