The record performances of Rupert Murdoch’s group are driven by the increase in digital subscriptions to its news titles, as well as the revival of advertising expenditure.
When love stories become disillusioned, business remains in good shape. 91-year-old media mogul Rupert Murdoch, who is currently going through his fourth divorce, is seeing his News Corp empire’s earnings hit record highs. The group that notably owns the newspapers The Wall Street Journal, The Timesthe New York Post and the tabloid The Sunas well as the publishing group HarperCollins, posted an 11% increase in turnover over one year, to 10.4 billion dollars in 2022 (financial year ended in June), he announced on Monday August 8 .
In one year, News Corp doubled its profits. They exceed $760 million in 2022, compared to $389 million the previous year. “These unprecedented results are largely explained by the record performance of our news media branch. With an average increase of 8% in digital subscriptions and a 14% growth in print and digital advertising, we can think that the effects of the pandemic are behind us.“, explained Robert Thomson, chief executive of News Corp.
The group, valued at 10.21 billion dollars on the Nasdaq, is nevertheless cautious for the coming months. Faced with galloping inflation, the decline in purchasing power and the desire of brands to reduce their advertising expenditure, News Corp mentions the impossibility for the group to establish earnings forecasts.
In the midst of the pandemic in 2020, News Corp had terminated the paper publication of several of its local newspapers in Australia. Two years later, in April 2022, Rupert Murdoch launched a new linear television channel in the UK “tabloid“. The chain with the populist slogan “Straight talking start here» («Straight Talk Starts Here“) has not yet met its audience, since it has so far systematically placed itself in last place among the news channels in terms of audience.
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