The Post’s parent company News Corp reported better-than-expected quarterly earnings on Thursday, driven by growth in its Dow Jones, digital real estate and book publishing divisions.
The New York-based media giant reported $121 million from continuing operations, or 16 cents a share, compared with income of $107 million, or 14 cents, the prior year. Adjusted earnings per share totaled 21 cents.
Third-quarter revenue grew 9% to $2.19 billion, compared with $2.01 billion a year ago. That beat Wall Street expectations of 16 cents EPS on $2.11 billion revenue.
“News Corp has again delivered resounding results this quarter, and we remain on track for another year of record profitability given the strength seen thus far in the fourth quarter,” News Corp CEO Robert Thomson said in a statement.
“The third quarter was compelling evidence of the transformation of our business, and demonstrated the robustness of our core growth engines, which we expect will propel us towards a strong fiscal finish,” he added.
During the quarter, News Corp’s financial results were driven by an 8% increase in revenue to $619 million at its Dow Jones unit, which publishes The Wall Street Journal and MarketWatch. News Corp saw a 10% increase at its real estate division to $148 million and an 8% jump in book publishing revenue to $555 million.
Thomson — who previously blasted AI companies for failing to pay enough for content — trumpeted News Corp’s artificial intelligence partnerships.
“Our confidence comes as the world is grappling with the potential impact of AI. We are an AI inputs company and that fact was reflected in our recent deal with Meta, which complements our partnership with OpenAI,” he said.
Earlier this year, News Corp. struck a multiyear AI content licensing deal with Meta that will pay News Corp up to $50 million a year. In 2024, News Corp agreed to a landmark content licensing deal with OpenAI.
“We are in discussions with other companies who recognize the preciousness of provenance, and these potential deals should have a positive impact on our revenue and profitability,” Thomson said.
He issued a warning to unscrupulous businesses in the digital space.
“We are also tracking a number of dodgy digital firms scraping illicitly, illegally our precious content and shamelessly reselling this purloined property,” the exec said.
“We have these baleful bad-boy bots in our sights and intend to pursue them vigorously. And we believe companies that willingly buy this stolen content from these nefarious fences are also culpable.”
