Community | August 06, 2009 | 23 comments

News Corp/Fox News records $3.4 Billion loss

source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/aug/05/news-corp-losses

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News Corp records £2bn lossRupert Murdoch's global media empire suffers worst year in recent memory amid advertising slump and internet losses
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Andrew Clark in New York
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 5 August 2009 21.49 BST
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Chairman and CEO of News Corporation Rupert Murdoch Photograph: Hector Mata/AFP


Rupert Murdoch's global media empire, News Corporation, slumped to a $3.4bn (£2bn) net loss for the 12 months to June as a combination of plunging advertising revenue, impairment charges and online losses contributed to the company's worst year in recent memory.

The group suffered hefty accounting charges related to a drop in the value of its assets. After stripping out these one-off items, its full-year operating profit dropped by 32% to $3.6bn, with growth in revenue at the group's cable television networks failing to make up for a slump in income from films, newspapers, books, magazines and online offerings.

Murdoch said: "The past year has been the most difficult in recent history, and our 2009 financial performance clearly reflects the weak economic environment that we confronted throughout the year."

He continued: "We streamlined all our businesses and continue to do so, at the same time adjusting to the revolutionary changes taking place throughout the media industry."

In the final quarter of the year, News Corp made a $203m loss, compared to a $1.1bn profit for the same period in 2008, hit by a $680m impairment charge at Fox Interactive Media – the division that includes the social networking website MySpace, which recently shed 400 staff as it struggles to compete with larger rival Facebook.

Murdoch's British newspapers, which include the Times, the Sun and the News of the World, suffered a 14% drop in year-end advertising revenue as the recession took its toll. Profits at News Corp's global newspapers unit, which includes international titles such as the Wall Street Journal and the Australian, fell from $786m to $466m.

The group's Twentieth Century Fox film studio recorded annual profits of $848m, a drop from last year's $1.24bn, as films such as X-Men Origins: Wolverine and the second instalment of the Night at the Museum series failed to match releases such as The Simpsons Movie and Live Free or Die Hard a year ago.

Earnings from cable network programming rose by 31% to $1.67bn but the group's television division, including its Fox stations in the US and Star networks in Asia, saw profits fall from $1.12bn to $174m.
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23 comments // News Corp/Fox News records $3.4 Billion loss

  • maof4brats
  • Bren589
  • csmonut
    • 0
      csmonut  

    • Hmmm...economic meltdown around the world. Mainstream media spinning their deceitful little webs, Murdoch losing money...
      Internet news sources becoming more prolific...gee, I wonder why?
      Is it possible people may be getting tired of the crap? Is it possible people may be wanting to know what is going on in the world? Is it possible people are beginning to realize they have been duped?
      There may even be hope that the proliferation of reality shows disappear on the telly! One could only hope:)

    • 2 years ago
  • jubal
  • stardate
  • HowdyDo
    • 0
      HowdyDo  

    • Fantastic!! Their cable news station is full of QUACKS!! Paranoid, whiney, crybaby, annoying, freakishly out-of-touch and obviously biased screwballs - ya, that about covers it

    • 2 years ago
  • cztheday
    • 0
      cztheday  

    • He "streamlined" all of his businesses,

      Yeah, he stripped them of all that excess truth, decency, compassion, tolerance, humanity, accuracy, relevance and beauty...

      I wonder if he has any understanding at all that despite all of his money he is an impoverished little gnome according to every other measure of wealth...

    • 2 years ago
  • ron_pual_2008
  • Mark701
  • stephenk29111
    • 0
      stephenk29111  

    • doesn't surprise me 1 bit..and fox deserves it. They are completely biased in the way the report news..and they always bash everything. like for instance the release of the journalists from North Korea. They just spewed out senseless bullshit about how this was going to have a negative impact on US foreign policy , yadda yadda. Fox is complete trash.

    • 2 years ago
  • oi812
  • thecoyote23
  • biggranny
    • 0
      biggranny  

    • is it just a pipe dream that he actually felt something. oh yeah thats right,it hit him in the pocket book. maybe he can join a self help group. rush limbaugh will let him sleep on his couch.shame on me for taking pleasure in another's pain. ok im over ti now

    • 2 years ago
  • bluestranger
    • 0
      bluestranger  

    • Looks like Ol' Rupert overestimated the capacity of the public for highly edited propaganda. Apparently even right wing nuts have a limit on the amount of bull corn they can be fed.

    • 2 years ago
  • Future_America
  • stephenthomson
  • galwayman
    • 0
      galwayman  

    • Am glad to hear this Fox news is nothing more then a front for the right wing in this country and his news outlets around the world are no different so lets boycott and shut him down!

    • 2 years ago
  • jenzo
    • 0
      jenzo  

    • jacobs,

      not a fan either way but if you read the story the spreading of right wing propaganda was the only profitable venture of all....

      Earnings from cable network programming rose by 31% to $1.67bn

      that would be the fox news channel.

    • 2 years ago
  • pjacobs51
  • lifestudentno83
  • maof4brats
  • bansheewail
  • mark1957
    • 0
      mark1957  
    • bansheewail:

      Very interesting. Can you also tell the viewers here what the disposition of the other news networks is? Newspapers such as the New York Times, and networks such as CNN and MSNBC. It would be interesting to compare. You know, apples to apples so to speak. It's way to easy to cherry pick the info.

    • 2 years ago
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