News Corp posts record first-quarter revenue to beat Wall Street estimates

News Corp posted record first-quarter revenue driven by growth in its digital real estate services, book publishing and Dow Jones segments, beating Wall Street estimates, the company said Thursday.

The media giant, which owns the New York Post and Wall Street Journal, saw net income rise 148% in the quarter to $144 million, or 21 cents per share.

Meanwhile, revenue rose 3% to $2.58 billion in the quarter ended Sept. 30, News Corp. said.

Wall Street analysts had expected 16 cents a share on revenue of $2.57 billion.

“We’ve started fiscal 2025 strongly, with record first-quarter revenue, strong net income and record first-quarter profitability,” News Corp chief executive Robert Thomson said after the better-than-expected results. .

“That we have achieved these record first quarter results in macro conditions that are far from favorable is compelling evidence of News Corp’s successful transformation over the past decade.”

The company’s Dow Jones segment saw an increase in content licensing and digital subscription.

Thomson singled out News Corp’s “trusted journalism” during the presidential primaries, as well as its partnership with OpenAI.

“Artificial intelligence recycles information errors and it is essential that journalistic inputs have integrity, which is why our partnership with OpenAI is so crucial and why we intend to sue AI companies that abuse and misuse our trusted journalism.”

The executive noted that Dow Jones and the New York Post have “initiated proceedings against the perplexing Perplexity, which is selling products based on our journalism, and we are busily preparing for further action against other companies that have ingested our archives and are synthesize our intellectual property.”

The companies filed a lawsuit on Oct. 24 against Jeff Bezos-backed artificial intelligence firm Perplexity AI for allegedly engaging in “a massive amount of illegal copying” of the publications’ copyrighted work.

News Corp also announced Thursday that Chief Financial Officer Susan Panuccio will step down on January 1 after nearly eight years in the role. She will be succeeded by Lavanya Chandrashekar, a CFO with experience at Procter & Gamble, Mondelēz and Diageo.