Feb 5 (Reuters) – News Corp beat Wall Street estimates for second-quarter revenue on Thursday, bolstered by growth in its Dow Jones, digital real estate and book publishing units.
The conglomerate, part of media mogul Rupert Murdoch’s empire, has been shifting to digital and subscription-based models to counter intensifying competition and adapt to changing consumer news consumption habits.
It has benefited from growth in its subscription-driven business information unit, Dow Jones, which includes the Wall Street Journal, Barron’s and MarketWatch.
The segment’s revenue increased by 8% to $648 million from the previous year, while total subscriptions for the Wall Street Journal grew 11% to nearly 4.7 million.
“The Dow Jones team has successfully secured a significant increase in enterprise customers, where we are incorporating WSJ content into the workstreams of companies,” CEO Robert Thomson said on a post-earnings call.
The company reported total revenue of $2.36 billion for the second quarter, compared with analysts’ average estimate of $2.29 billion, according to data compiled by LSEG.
Its performance was also bolstered by a recovering property market, which lifted revenue at its digital real estate services segment by 8%.
News Corp’s book publishing segment, which consists of HarperCollins, saw revenue rise 6% to $633 million in the quarter.
It launched the California Post, a conservative daily tabloid in January, marking the New York Post’s expansion into the West Coast media landscape.
(Reporting by Juby Babu in Mexico City; Editing by Vijay Kishore)
