News Corp. Results Dinged by MySpace; Plans Pay News Sites

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on August 6, 2009 - 7:24am.

New York - Media conglomerate News Corp. (NYSE: NWS) reported a 10.7% decline in quarterly revenue, to $7.67 billion, and a net loss of $203 million, largely due to an operating loss of $136 million at social network MySpace. The loss at MySpace was attributed to the declining ad market, and competition from rival Facebook.

Chairman Rupert Murdoch said he wants to charge for access to all News Corp. news websites by the middle of next year; the company's flagship Wall Street Journal has long charged for online access, Reuters reported.

Other publications include The New York Post, The Times of London, The Sun and The Australian.

"An industry that gives away its content is cannibalizing its ability to do good reporting," Murdoch said.

Murdoch is also unhappy with Amazon.com's (NASD: AMZN) control over the pricing of content on its Kindle e-book reader device.

"We are changing the price of the Journal on the Kindle [from $10 to $15 per month] and we'll get a better share of the revenue although I can't say that I'm satisfied that it's the final result that we want but it'll be a lot better."

Murdoch also said that Amazon's policy of not disclosing the identities of Wall Street Journal subscribers on the Kindle "eventually will cause a break between us."

Related Links:
http://www.newscorp.com/investor/download/NWS_Q4_2009.pdf (PDF)

http://tech.yahoo.com/news/nm/20090806/tc_nm/us_newscorp_6

http://snipurl.com/ovlhi (PaidContent)