News Corp. posted a 4.5% rise in its FQ4 profit Wednesday, but the results appeared to be secondary to market watchers who were more interested in last week's deal to buy Dow Jones & Co. News Corp. owner Rupert Murdoch said he wouldn't have endured three months of "criticism normally 
leveled at some sort of genocidal tyrant," if he didn't think the two companies were a "perfect fit." He also said he was exploring "closely" the possibility of making the subscription-based wsj.com free in an effort to boost online advertising, and that Dow Jones should not be separated from News Corp. Murdoch said there were no job cuts planned at Dow Jones, but that he did expect to sell the local newspapers. He also indicated plans to expand investment in all Dow Jones properties in Europe and Asia, and increase non-business coverage at the WSJ (see full earnings call transcript). As for the earnings, which matched analysts' expectations, net income rose to $890M ($0.28/share) on revenue of $7.37B, from $852M ($0.27/share) on revenue of $6.78B last year. A sharp decline (47%) at the 20th Century Fox film business was offset by sharply higher cable profits and earnings from the company's Italian satellite-TV business. Operating income at the company's newspaper unit rose 19% to $203M as revenues increased 13%, while the broadcast-television segment's operating income fell 4.5% to $385M.
Sources: MarketWatch, Wall Street Journal, Reuters
Commentary: News Corp. CFO: Fox Interactive To Benefit From Google Deal In 2008 • News Corp.'s Long-Term Prospects Are Outstanding • Old Media Struggles With New Media Demands
Stocks/ETFs to watch: NWS, DJ. Competitors: TWX, CBS, NYT. ETFs: XLY
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