News Corp Reports Revenue Growth

News Corp said revenue increased by 7.3% in the latest quarter, thanks to continued strength in advertising and rapid growth at Wall Street Journal parent Dow Jones & Co.

The New York-based media company, whose holdings include The Wall Street Journal, HarperCollins Publishers and news organizations in the U.K. and Australia, reported $2.67 billion in revenue in the quarter ended June 30, the final quarter of its fiscal year. The company swung to a net profit of $110 million, compared with a loss of $14 million in the year-earlier period, due in part to a higher tax benefit.

“We are confident of our prospects in fiscal 2023,” Chief Executive Robert Thomson said on a call with investors following the results.

The Wall Street Journal reports News Corp reported faster revenue growth from advertising than from circulation and subscriptions in the quarter, bucking a recent trend among news publishers. U.S. television networks and news organizations have said in recent days that they are feeling the effects of a slowdown in the advertising market.

The News Corp unit that reported the fastest growth was Dow Jones, the publisher of the Journal, Barron’s and MarketWatch, which posted a 26% rise in revenue to $565 million and a 54% increase in segment earnings to $106 million.

The Journal averaged nearly 3.1 million digital-only subscriptions in the quarter, up roughly 2% from about 3.04 million in the March quarter. Including print, the Journal averaged 3.75 million subscribers for the period. Across the entire unit, Dow Jones reached an average of 4.9 million subscribers in the quarter.

News Corp’s other news publications, which include the New York Post, the Sun and the Times in the U.K. and many papers in Australia, reported a 5.7% increase in revenue to $629 million.

The company’s digital real estate services division reported a 7.3% gain in revenue to $443 million. News Corp’s subscription-video-services unit, which includes Foxtel, an Australian pay-TV provider, posted a 3.3% decrease in revenue to $524 million.

The company’s book-publishing unit, HarperCollins Publishers, posted a 4.1% revenue increase to $513 million. Mr. Thomson said the acquisition of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt books and media was already proving its virtue, citing its valuable backlist. That catalog includes the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, a category where the company expects big sales in advance of a coming Amazon.com Inc. adaptation inspired by “The Lord of the Rings.” Mr. Thomson also touted the success of the HarperCollins title “Portrait of an Unknown Woman” and the film “Where the Crawdads Sing,” which benefits News Corp through a partnership with Sony Pictures.