Revenue in the company’s news and information division grew one percent to $1.42 billion which is the first time since News Corp broke up from 21 Century Fox in the middle of 2013.
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News Corp, owner of The Wall Street Journal, HarperCollins and Realtor.com, said Monday it swung back to profitability in the fiscal fourth quarter after revenue gains in digital real estate services and book publishing helped offset a decline in print advertising sales.
The company-which publishes The Wall Street Journal as well as other newspapers in the U.K., Australia and the U.
The New York-based company said its net income in the quarter ended on June 30 came to $89 million after preferred dividends, or 15 cents per share.
Sales at the news unit, which makes up about two-thirds of the company’s revenue, climbed 1 percent to $1.42 billion. After the announcement of this settlement last June, Zillow announced both parties arrived at a friendly solution and their agreement did not contain acknowledgment of misconduct or culpability.
Advertising revenues dropped seven percent, which excludes the effects of foreign currency movements, which is still an improvement from twin digit percentage declines during past quarters. Revenue fell 2.7 percent, to $8.29 billion.
“Over the past year, we made clear progress on our primary goals – to become more digital and more global….”
Earnings per share from continuing operations were 16 cents, versus 1 cent during the prior year’s quarter. Circulation revenue grew five percent as digital subscribers of the WSJ increased from 893,000 up to 948,000 at the end of the 2 quarter. Overall advertising revenue in the news and information segment was buoyed by strong sales in the company’s in-store advertising and advertising insert business.
News Corp, HarperCollins’ parent company, said the strong fourth quarter was thanks to the popularity of front-list titles such as The Nest by Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney, The Rainbow Comes and Goes by Anderson Cooper and The World’s Worst Children by David Walliams, as well as a $19m (£14.6m) impact from the additional week in the quarter.
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Meanwhile, the small-but-growing digital real-estate business reported a 21% gain in revenue to $229 million.
