Strong contributions from digital real estate and book publishing allowed News Corp to grow its revenue by five per cent in the second quarter, although its income from news media dipped.
Overall News Corp posted $2.24 billion in revenue in the three months to December 31, up from $US2.14 billion in the same time in 2023, the media giant announced Thursday.
Its earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation climbed 20 per cent to $US478 million - a 12 per cent beat to analysts' consensus expectations.
"This is a strong result, and we’d expect the stock to outperform the market today," E&P analyst Entcho Raykovski said.
News Corp's ASX-listed shares were up 4.1 per cent to an all-time high of $55.40 in early trading.
Digital real estate services revenue was up 13 per cent to $US473 million, with REA Group growing its revenue by 17 per cent to $US343 million, driven by continued strong performance of its Australian property listing business.
News Corp's book publishing revenue climbed eight per cent to $595 million, thanks in part to strong sales from the adult-themed revisionist novel Wicked and a memoir by Cher.
Ebook sales were up six per cent and audiobook sales grew 13 per cent, thanks in part to a partnership with Spotify.
News media revenue fell two per cent to $US570 million, mostly due to lower revenue from third-party printing contracts in the UK.
Relative to E&P's estimates, however, News Corp's news media business drove the earnings beat, Mr Raykovski said.
Its other divisions were broadly in line with expectations.
News Corp's Australian publishing business ended 2024 with 1.13 million digital subscribers, up seven per cent from a year ago.
But News Corp Australia's revenue slipped one per cent to $US236 million over the quarter.
The Wall Street Journal ended the year with 4.2 million subscriptions, up four per cent from a year ago. Digital-only subscriptions climbed seven per cent to 3.8 million.
Chief executive Robert Thomson said that News Corp had had a "fruitful quarter, qualitatively and quantitatively".
News Corp reiterated that its $3.4 billion sale of Foxtel Group to UK-based sports streaming giant DAZN was expected to close in the second half of 2024/25, meaning by the end of June.
