News Corporation recorded operating profit of $851 million for the first quarter, a 6.4% fall year on year, although the corporation’s online revenues continued to show growth.
The decline in operating profit was due to due to a decline at its film division 20th Century Fox.
Revenue for News Corp’s global newspaper division was down slightly year on year for the Q1 to $124 million, with the launch of thelondonpaper believed to have had an impact. Overall revenue increased to $5.9 billion, a 4.1% increase year on year.
News Corp also announced that, if it could find the right joint venture partner, it could launch social networking website MySpace in China.
Wall Street media analysts recently predicted that MySpace could be worth around $15 billion within three years (see MySpace Could Be Worth $15 Billion).
Rupert Murdoch, chairman and chief executive, said: “Sustained market-leading positions at our cable networks and television stations, along with stronger advertising at the FOX network, produced double-digit operating income growth in the Cable Network Programming and Television segments.
“And while our film segment faced difficult comparisons with a year ago, our theatrical successes over the past six months are poised to generate significant returns in the quarters ahead as these titles are distributed across additional distribution platforms.
“We have also begun to capitalise on the rapid growth at our new media assets, where News Corporation websites now rank second in the US in total page views and fifth in unique visitors. Our recently announced landmark deal with Google for textual search is expected to generate $900 million over three and a half years, signifying our ability to monetise our traffic in ways that make sense for our audience and quickly moving our new media properties toward profitability.”
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