News Corp’s quarterly revenue falls 4.5 percent

The company had revenue of $2014.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $2088.85 million.

The company reported net income for the first quarter of $175 million, up from $65 million in the same period previous year.

News Corp’s chief executive, Robert Thomson, said the results showed the company’s digital transition plans were on track. The CEO noted that foreign exchange relations fluctuations did impact results, but it could not obscure the progress of the businesses.

“We are now, by a few reckoning, the world’s largest digital property listings company and we see a particularly bright future in the sector, especially in the United States where we believe the national real estate market is still returning to health”. We are already seeing significant new opportunities because of Unruly’s unique skills in measuring the social and viral penetration of advertising campaigns.

“We are particularly pleased with the momentum at realtor.com, which is significantly ahead of schedule on key metrics”, Mr Thomson said.

News Corp’s stable of newspapers, which include The Australian, The Times in Britain and The New York Post, suffered an 11 per cent decline in revenues during the quarter.

News Corp’s rival Fairfax has largely been supported by its real estate business Domain.

The company, controlled by Rupert Murdoch, said on Thursday revenue from its news and information business fell about 11 percent to $1.29 billion in the first quarter.

Advertising revenue sank 13% in the news and information segment, which comprises newspaper holdings in Britain, Australia and the U.S. Publishing revenues declined by 9 per cent.

Wall Street had projected revenue to come in at $2.09 billion. Revenue fell 4 percent due to foreign currency fluctuations and print advertising weakness. Cable network programming was also off 11 percent from a year to $124 million.

News Corp., which owns HarperCollins, saw an uptick in revenue at its publishing division, which benefited from the July release of “Go Set a Watchman”, the sequel to Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird”. The 52-week high of News Corporation (NASDAQ:NWSA) is $17.55 and the 52-week low is $12.16. Total revenue fell 4.5 percent to $2.01 billion. But net profit zoomed 31.2 percent to US$143 million (AU$199.7 million).