News Corp posted record first-quarter revenue driven by growth at its digital real estate services, book publishing and Dow Jones segments, blowing past Wall Street estimates, the company said Thursday.
The media giant, which owns the New York Post and the Wall Street Journal, saw net income jump 148% in the quarter to $144 million, or 21 cents a share.
Meanwhile, revenue edged up 3% to $2.58 billion in the quarter ended Sept. 30, News Corp said.
Wall Street analysts expected 16 cents a share on revenue of $2.57 billion.
“We have begun fiscal 2025 robustly, 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 which are far from auspicious is compelling evidence of the successful transformation of News Corp over the past decade.”
The company’s Dow Jones segment saw a surge in content licensing and digital subscription.
Thomson singled out News Corp’s “trusted journalism” during the run-up to the presidential election, as well as its partnership with OpenAI.
“Artificial intelligence recycles informational infelicities and it is critical that journalistic inputs have integrity, which is why our partnership with OpenAI is so crucial and why we intend to sue AI companies abusing and misusing our trusted journalism.”
The exec noted that Dow Jones and the New York Post have “started proceedings against the perplexing Perplexity, which is selling products based on our journalism, and we are diligently preparing for further action against other companies that have ingested our archives and are synthesizing our intellectual property.”
The companies filed suit on Oct. 24 against the 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 on Thursday that Chief Financial Officer Susan Panuccio will step down on Jan. 1 after nearly eight years on the job. She will be succeeded by Lavanya Chandrashekar, a seasoned CFO with stints at Procter & Gamble, Mondelēz and Diageo.
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