News Corp Australia’s ad slump hits global revenue
News Corp's Robert Thompson : "The value of IP in the age of AI is misconceived."
News Corp Australia’s advertising slowdown caused a US$7 million hit to the global business in its first quarterly results for 2026.
The media giant revealed that its News Media advertising revenue fell 4% year-on-year for the period ending 30 September 2025.
In its global results, posted on the ASX, News Corp directly attributed the US$7 million (A$10.8 million) drop to “lower print and digital advertising revenues at News Corp Australia.”
Overall, the News Media division generated US$191 million from advertising sales in the first quarter, with digital advertising accounting for 68% of that total.
The decline was partly offset by higher advertising revenues at the New York Post and a US$1 million boost from foreign currency fluctuations, according to News Corp’s earnings report.
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Despite the fall in advertising, News Corp Australia recorded a win with its digital subscriber numbers, which rose 3.1% year-on-year to 1.2 million, including 993,000 for its news mastheads.
The increase reflects efforts by Australian publishers, including News Corp and rival Nine, to grow subscriber bases, with editorial KPIs increasingly tied to content-driven subscriptions.
On a global scale, News Corp posted US$2.14 billion in revenue, up 2% year-on-year, largely driven by “growth at the Dow Jones and Digital Real Estate Services segments.”
Quarterly profit stood at US$150 million, a 1% increase from US$149 million in the prior year.
News Corp chief executive Robert Thomson used the results to launch another critique of the rise of artificial intelligence and its potential threat to copyright and content integrity, saying:
“It is also patently clear that the value of IP in the age of AI is misconceived. Information and sophisticated data are the essence of AI, and without these essential ingredients, AI is but empty, ignorant infrastructure. Electricity without alacrity. Buildings without billings. Chips without chops.”
Earlier this year, during News Corp’s full-year earnings, Thomson had warned of the broader implications of AI on intellectual property:
“The AI age must cherish the value of intellectual property if we are collectively to realise our potential…. America’s advantage is ingenuity and creativity, not bits and bytes, not watts but wit. To undermine that competitive advantage by stripping away IP rights is to vandalise our virtuosity.”
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