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At News Corp., parent company of HarperCollins, net sales in the fourth quarter ended June 30 rose 11%, to $2.34 billion, and net income more than doubled, to $230 million. For the fiscal year, revenues rose 7%, to $9.03 billion, and net income rose 15%, to $743 million. News Corp. said that the sales increase was "driven by higher revenues at the digital real estate services, Dow Jones and book publishing segments, the company's core growth engines."
In the fourth quarter, book publishing revenue jumped 15%, to $566 million, and in the fiscal year, book publishing was up 6%, to $2.288 billion. Book publishing EBITDA rose 14%, to $57 million, in the quarter and for the fiscal year dropped 3%, to $287 million.
News Corp. attributed book publishing's 15% revenue gain in the fourth quarter to a variety of factors, including a strong frontlist, higher backlist sales, "strength in general books, the U.K., and children's publishing," as well as an increase in audiobook and digital book sales. Digital sales represented 24% of consumer revenue, and backlist represented 60% of consumer sales, down from 65% in the same period a year earlier because frontlist had "robust" results.
The full fiscal year revenue gain of 6% in book publishing benefited in part from acquisitions but also from higher printed and digital book sales and "strong performance from Rachel Reid's Game Changers titles and strength in Christian publishing."
As has been the case recently, News Corp. CEO Robert Thomson discussed AI and pirating in unusually colorful, un-corporate language. He said in part, "Much of the world is being reshaped by artificial intelligence, but artificial intelligence itself is only as useful and only as trustworthy as the quality of its inputs. We believe that makes News Corp. an absolutely critical participant in the emerging AI ecosystem. Without our journalists, our authors, our data, our brands and our professional expertise, users would be drowning in a slimy sea of AI slop.
"We have trusted content relationships with OpenAI and Meta, and are in advanced discussions with several other companies. However, under our woo and sue approach, we are taking aggressive action against those who pilfer and profit from our work. We will pursue those pilferers, and companies that are clients of these crass kleptomaniacs should know they are patently in possession of stolen goods."