By Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg

News Corp's revenue and profit increased in its fiscal second quarter, reflecting gains at its Dow Jones, digital real estate services and book publishing segments.

Quarterly revenue at the company, whose properties include The Wall Street Journal and HarperCollins Publishers, increased 4.8% to $2.24 billion. Analysts had expected revenue of $2.18 billion.

News Corp earned $215 million, or 40 cents per share, in the quarter. Analysts had expected earnings of 30 cents per share.

A year ago, the company reported earnings of $156 million, or 28 cents per share.

Class A shares fell 2% in after-market trading. The stock has risen 19% over the past 12 months.

News Corp in December agreed to sell its stake in Australian pay-TV company Foxtel to sports streaming service DAZN Group. News Corp said it intended to focus more sharply on Dow Jones, digital real estate services and book publishing.

More on News Corp's quarterly earnings:

-- Book-publishing revenues grew 8.2% to $595 million. Top titles for HarperCollins included "Cher: The Memoir" and "Wicked" by Gregory Maguire.

-- The Journal said digital subscriptions fell by less than 1% from the September quarter, to an average of 3.79 million. Including the print edition, total subscriptions to the Journal averaged 4.23 million, down slightly from the prior quarter.

-- Dow Jones revenue rose 2.7% from the year-ago quarter and earnings grew 6.7%. Advertising revenue for the segment declined 4%, reflecting a decrease in print advertising. Digital advertising accounted for 64% of total advertising revenue in the quarter.

-- Revenue in the company's digital real estate services segment increased 12.9% to $473 million.

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(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 05, 2025 16:53 ET (21:53 GMT)

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