News Corp’s Pro Products See Growth; Consumer Media Weakens

By Christiana Sciaudone • February 5, 2025
Robert – stock.adobe.com

News Corp’s news media assets including the New York Post, and excluding The Wall Street Journal, saw a steep drop in traffic amid changing algorithms in the quarter ended in December, while Dow Jones’s professional information business revenue helped the segment hit a record. 

Margins for Dow Jones also increased to 29% from 27.9% and should continue to do so, executives said on the earnings call. 

Some of the most notable numbers include the following, comparisons are year-over-year.

  • Second quarter revenue rose 5% to $2.24 billion, driven by growth at the Digital Real Estate Services, Book Publishing and Dow Jones, which includes The Wall Street Journal. 
  • News Media, which includes The Times and the New York Post, revenue dropped 2%.
  • Net income from continuing operations in the quarter rose 58% to $306 million.
  • Reported EPS from continuing operations was $0.40 versus $0.28; adjusted EPS was $0.33 compared to $0.27. 
  • Dow Jones reported record revenue of $600 million, underpinned by improved circulation revenues and higher professional information business revenues driven by growth of 11% at Risk & Compliance and 10% at Dow Jones Energy.

Dow Jones

Dow Jones, which includes The Wall Street Journal, revenue rose 3%, or $16 million, driven by higher circulation and subscription revenue from continued growth in the professional information business, higher circulation revenue and higher content licensing revenue, offset by lower print advertising revenues. 

The segment’s risk analytics and energy coverage areas are seeing strong growth amid rapidly changing regulations, sanctions and tariffs.

The total average subscriptions to Dow Jones’ consumer products was up 9% to 5.9 million, with digital-only subscriptions up 13% to over 5.3 million.

  • Digital revenue at Dow Jones represented 81% of total revenues compared to 78% in the prior year. 
  • Circulation and subscription revenue rose 5%, or $20 million, reflecting a 4% increase in professional information business revenue; 11% growth in Risk & Compliance revenue to $80 million; and 10% growth in Dow Jones Energy revenue to $68 million. 
  • Circulation revenue increased 3%; growth in digital-only subscriptions was partly offset by lower print volume. 
  • Digital circulation revenues accounted for 73% of circulation revenue, compared to 70% in the prior year.
  • Total subscriptions to The Wall Street Journal grew 4% to over 4.2 million. 
  • Digital-only subscriptions to The Wall Street Journal grew 7% to nearly 3.8 million average subscriptions in the quarter, and represented 90% of total Wall Street Journal subscriptions.

News Media

News Media adjusted revenue fell 3% compared to a year earlier with circulation and subscription revenue flat. 

Advertising revenue dropped 2% with traffic declining in the UK due to algorithm changes at certain platforms. The segment benefited from increased cover prices and subscription pricing across mass trends.

  • Closing digital subscribers at News Corp Australia were 1,126,000 compared to 1,051,000.
  • The Times and Sunday Times digital subscribers were 616,000, compared to 575,000.
  • The Sun’s digital offering reached 70 million global monthly unique users compared to 143 million.
  • New York Post’s digital network reached 90 million unique users compared to 124 million in the prior year.

The Post’s revenue was propped up by the deal with OpenAI. Chief Executive Officer Robert Thomson said in a statement:

We are providing priceless content for Generative AI, and remain vigilant in our pursuit of degenerative AI. We are pleased with our partnership with OpenAI and hope that other companies in the segment take a similarly enlightened approach. Our legal action against the perplexing Perplexity is underway and we look forward with relish to document discovery. The sudden rise of DeepSeek is itself a salutary lesson for all AI players. Data centers, chips, and energy costs aside, we believe DeepSeek lacks the immediacy of trusted news and, ultimately, content will be king in the world of AI.