News Corp. swung to a second-quarter profit, led by continued strength at its cable programming and filmed entertainment divisions after its year-ago results were dragged into the red by revenue declines and impairment charges, the New York-based company announced Tuesday.
The results come as the global media empire, controlled by Chief Executive Rupert Murdoch, grapples with the shifting economics of the media industry amid the rise of the Internet as well as the lingering effects of an advertising downturn that came with the global financial crisis.
“Across the globe, our businesses are all growing, and we are entering calendar 2010 with new vigor and strength,” Murdoch told employees in an e-mail shortly after earnings were released at 4:01 p.m. ET.
The company reported earnings of $254 million, or 10 cents a share, for the quarter, compared with the year-ago loss of $6.4 billion, or $2.45 a share.
The results in the latest quarter were dragged down by a $500 million pretax charge related to a settlement of antitrust charges against its direct marketing subsidiary, News America Marketing, by rival Valassis Communications. After tax, the charges totaled $315 million, or 12 cents a share.
Excluding items in both years, News Corp.’s per-share earnings rose to 25 cents from 15 cents. Revenue rose 10 percent to $8.68 billion.
Analysts, on average, were forecasting earnings of 20 cents a share on revenue of $8.23 billion.
Murdoch also said that the company is having internal discussions about the possibility of a late-night program for Conan O’Brien, but that Fox has not been in negotiations with the former “Tonight Show” host.
Murdoch said Fox affiliates that currently run lucrative syndicated reruns or other profitable programming in the 11 p.m. time slot would “have to make an adjustment” to accommodate O’Brien.
News Corp. owns The Post, Dow Jones Newswires and NewsCore.