News Corp. beat analysts’ expectations in its fiscal second quarter, reporting slightly better-than-forecast revenue of $2.24 billion, a 4 percent decrease from the prior-year second period.
Adjusted earnings per share came in at 31 cents versus FactSet expectations of 21 cents.
News Corp.’s book division HarperCollins and digital real estate services both recorded upticks in revenue for the period ended Dec. 31, 2013. Book publishing revenue increased $14 million, or 4 percent, thanks to sales of the “Divergent” series by Veronica Roth and “The Pioneer Woman Cooks: A Year of Holidays.”
The News and Information Services division, which incorporates newspapers such as The New York Post and the Wall Street Journal, saw a 9 percent decrease in the period, partly due to a decline in advertising revenue.
Profit was $150 million in the period versus $1.4 billion in the year-ago period, which included a gain of $1.3 billion related to the acquisition of Australian media firm Consolidated Media Holdings.
News Corp. CEO Robert Thomson said in a statement: “The digital transformation is certainly under way, as the acquisition of Storyful and the robust growth in digital sales at HarperCollins attest.”