Thursday, August 6, 2009

MySpace Zaps News Corp. 4Q Earnings; Rupe Wants $$ for Content

Smacked by massive impairment and restructuring charges tied to enfeebled MySpace, News Corp. reported a loss of $203 million for the fiscal fourth quarter ending June 30.

The 4Q loss of 8 cents a share compares unfavorably to 4Q results a year ago that showed a profit of $1.1 billion or 43 cents a share. News Corp. Chair Rupert Murdoch vowed to begin charging a fee for online content for his newspaper and television news holdings. Presently, The Wall St. Journal, owned by Murdoch, successfully operates a firewall, but it's a niche publication for which its business subscribers are willing to pony up. With competitors such as BBC and CNN offering news content for free, it's questionable whether folks would ante up for the same news online from Fox, though some people would probably pay to keep the tabloid musings of The New York Post off the Internet.

According to its Website, News. Corp. has total assets of $53 billion and annual revenues of $30 billion as of June 30, 2009. News Corp. stock (NWS) is trading at $12.56 a share on the NASDAQ exchange at this hour.

1 comment:

  1. Rupert Murdoch can be as arrogant and entitled as he wants, he's earned it, but charging for content - AT THIS POINT - would be stupid.

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