A record finish to the financial year

News Corporation has closed out its 2026 financial year on a high note, reporting an 11 per cent jump in fourth-quarter revenue and what management describes as the highest profitability in the company's history. The Rupert Murdoch-founded media group, which spans The Wall Street Journal, HarperCollins, a stable of newspapers and a controlling stake in Australian property portal REA Group, said the result underlined its transformation into a digital-first business built around subscriptions and data.

For the three months to 30 June, total revenue rose to US$2.34 billion from US$2.11 billion a year earlier. Net income from continuing operations more than doubled to US$230 million, up 167 per cent, while total segment EBITDA climbed 31 per cent to US$423 million. Diluted earnings per share from continuing operations came in at 33 US cents, against 9 cents in the prior corresponding quarter, and adjusted earnings per share reached 35 cents.

It is worth being precise about the 11 per cent headline: that figure is the fourth-quarter growth rate. Across the full year, revenue rose a more modest 7 per cent to US$9.03 billion from US$8.45 billion. The company nonetheless characterised the annual outcome as record revenue and profitability on a continuing-operations basis, with full-year net income from continuing operations up 15 per cent to US$743 million and total segment EBITDA up 15 per cent to US$1.63 billion.

How the ASX fits in

Australian investors should be clear about where News Corp actually trades. Its primary listing is on the Nasdaq, where the Class A non-voting shares change hands under NWSA and the Class B voting shares under NWS. On the ASX, exposure comes via CHESS Depositary Interests: the Class B voting CDIs trade as NWS, while the Class A non-voting CDIs trade as NWSLV. Both remain quoted on the ASX, and the company continues to lodge results with the exchange, but the shares themselves are American and reported in US dollars.

The CDI structure has been shrinking. Company filings through 2026 have shown a steady drift of securities out of the ASX CDI pools and into Nasdaq-quoted stock, partly reflecting a US$1 billion buy-back that News Corp has run against its Nasdaq shares while excluding the ASX CDIs. That is a technical migration rather than any retreat from Australia, but it does mean the on-market ASX float is thinner than the group's global profile might suggest.

Dow Jones and property do the heavy lifting

The standout engines were Dow Jones and Digital Real Estate Services, the two divisions News Corp has been reinvesting in most heavily. Dow Jones, home to The Wall Street Journal, Barron's and a fast-growing professional-information arm, lifted fourth-quarter revenue 7 per cent to US$644 million and segment EBITDA 20 per cent to US$181 million. Total subscriptions passed 6.7 million, up 7 per cent, with digital-only subscriptions of 6.3 million now the clear centre of gravity; digital accounted for 84 per cent of Dow Jones revenue.

Digital Real Estate Services was the growth leader, with quarterly revenue up 19 per cent to US$553 million. REA Group, the ASX-listed portal in which News Corp holds a majority stake, contributed US$386 million, a 21 per cent gain, while the US-based Move business that operates Realtor.com grew 13 per cent to US$167 million. For the full year the segment generated US$2.02 billion of revenue and US$741 million of EBITDA, the latter up 23 per cent and comfortably the group's most profitable division on a margin basis.

Books hold up, news media lags

Book Publishing, anchored by HarperCollins, had a strong quarter with revenue up 15 per cent to US$566 million and segment EBITDA up 14 per cent to US$57 million, helped by a solid release slate and a 12 per cent rise in digital sales. Over the full year, however, the division's revenue grew a steadier 6 per cent and its EBITDA edged slightly lower, a reminder that publishing remains title-dependent and lumpy from quarter to quarter.

News Media, which houses the Australian and UK mastheads including The Australian, the New York Post and The Times of London, remains the group's laggard. Fourth-quarter revenue rose 5 per cent to US$574 million, but segment EBITDA fell, and for the full year the division's earnings declined 9 per cent. Structural pressure on print advertising and circulation continues to weigh, even as News Corp leans on digital subscriptions and content-licensing deals to steady the base.

Content, AI and the 'woo and sue' strategy

Chief executive Robert Thomson framed the year around the company's push into artificial intelligence licensing, pointing to what he has called a 'woo and sue' approach: striking paid content partnerships with willing platforms while pursuing legal action against those that scrape material without permission. News Corp has existing content agreements with OpenAI and Meta, and management has positioned proprietary journalism and data as increasingly valuable inputs for AI models.

'We concluded Fiscal 2026 with an exceptional fourth-quarter performance, including an 11 per cent increase in revenues to $2.34 billion and the highest profitability on record,' Thomson said, crediting the group's core growth engines of Digital Real Estate Services, Dow Jones and Book Publishing. The messaging is consistent with a multi-year strategy of shedding lower-margin assets and concentrating on recurring, subscription-led revenue.

What to watch from here

The investment case now rests on whether Dow Jones and the property portals can keep compounding while News Media's decline is contained. The professional-information business within Dow Jones, spanning risk, compliance and energy data, is the segment most likely to surprise on the upside, and any acceleration in AI-licensing revenue could add a genuinely new income stream. On the risk side, a softening in the Australian or US housing markets would hit REA and Move directly, and print advertising shows no sign of stabilising.

For ASX-based holders of the NWS or NWSLV CDIs, currency is an additional variable: earnings are struck in US dollars, so the Australian-dollar value of any return moves with the exchange rate. With record annual profitability now banked and the buy-back continuing, the near-term question is less about whether News Corp can grow and more about the pace and durability of that growth as it pushes deeper into digital and data-led revenue.