Rupert Murdoch's News Corp Sees Profits Plunge 75%

Improve the News Foundation -

Facts

  • On Thursday, media giant News Corp revealed that profits this year had fallen 75%, with their net income falling to $187M on June 30, less than the $760M in profits the company raked in last year.1
  • The company did, however, beat quarterly earnings estimates thanks to cost-cutting measures. CEO Robert Thomson revealed the company was staking its hopes on generative artificial intelligence (AI), calling it a "remarkable opportunity."2
  • Thomson also revealed that 50% of the company's revenue was from its digital streams. Core earnings rose 8%, buoyed by data services and subscriptions, but suffered from an 18.4% drop in real estate revenue and an 11.9% decline in ad revenue in the final quarter.3
  • The Rupert Murdoch-owned media conglomerate's struggling Australian division recently revealed it was using AI to write 3K articles a week. The company's AI hopes, as well as a belief that interest rates and inflation will stabilize, were "sound reasons for optimism," Thomson says.4
  • Negotiations with AI companies to establish the value of the company's content are ongoing, Thomson says, with the Associated Press inking a similar deal with OpenAI last month, which licensed some of the news agency's archives to the ChatGPT maker.2
  • The New York-based News Corp has media properties that include HarperCollins Publishers, The New York Post, and the UK's The Sun and The Times. Through their ownership of Dow Jones, their portfolio also includes The Wall Street Journal, Barron's, and MarketWatch.5

Sources: 1Sky News, 2Reuters, 3New York Post, 4The Guardian, and 5The Wall Street Journal.

Narratives

  • Left narrative, as provided by The New Republic. One of the great exporters of far-right politics and low-quality infotainment, Rupert Murdoch's media empire is slowly but surely crumbling. His promotion of toxic political causes has finally forced consumers away from his products. However, we ought to be concerned about the potential damage an AI product could do if they create a generative model based on their noxious journalism.
  • Right narrative, as provided by New York Post. While there will no doubt be glee in some circles at this news, Murdoch's other conglomerate, Fox News' owner Fox Corp, has been doing just fine, even after the departure of its star anchor Tucker Carlson. News Corp's woes are due to market fluctuations, with the public still enjoying Murdoch's products in spite of the haranguing leftists who think they can dictate what media they can and cannot enjoy.