New News Corp.'s Moneymaker

http://www.futureofcapitalism.com/2013/01/new-news-corp-moneymaker

From an article in the Wall Street Journal:

News Corp. doesn't disclose the financial performance of News America Marketing, but Nomura Securities estimates the division brought in $1.1 billion in revenue in the year through June 2012, when it generated $210 million in operating income.

The division will be split off along with various publishing businesses later this year into a company that will retain the News Corp. name. That company generated $8.7 billion in revenue in the year through June 2012 with operating income of $429 million, excluding a one-time charge, according to pro forma figures in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Got that? Of the $429 million in operating income generated by the New News Corp. — that is, the newspaper and publishing part of Rupert Murdoch's media empire, including Dow Jones and its Wall Street Journal, the New York Post, the HarperCollins book publisher, the various British and Australian newspapers — $210 million, or nearly half of it, comes from this "News America Marketing" unit that isn't a news or editorial-content based business at all, but rather an operator in the "in-store promotions" market, which are then packaged with pre-printed coupon inserts. This is a business that attracts a lot less attention than, say, a new editor or a new section at the Wall Street Journal or some high-advance book being brought out by HarperCollins. But, if the Wall Street Journal article is to be believed, absent a major turnaround in the rest of the News Corp. businesses — i.e., the newspapers, web sites, book publisher, and the financial news businesses — it's the in-store marketing and coupons where the profits are coming from.

by Editor  |  Jan 30, 2013 at 11:51 am Related Topics:  Press receive the latest by email: subscribe to the free futureofcapitalism.com mailing list