News Corp. Earnings Fall

(RTTNews) - News Corp. (NWS) announced earnings for the second quarter that fell sharply from last year. Results at the media giant were hurt by a challenging market for print advertising.

The company reported net income of $62 million, or $0.15 per share. This was down from $142 million, or $0.27 per share, in the same period last year.

Revenues for the quarter slipped 4 percent to $2.16 billion compared to $2.26 billion in the same period last year.

The slide was led by an 8 percent retreat in its news and information services unit. The company blamed negative foreign currency exchange fluctuations and a decline in revenues at its News America Marketing unit for a significant portion of the decline.

The top-line slide was partially offset by a sharp rise at its digital real estate services division, where revenues were up 35 percent. However, this is relatively small part of the company, bringing in about one-seventh of the revenue of the news unit.

Along with the growth of the real estate business, anchored by realtor.com, the company said it is focused on cost reductions to streamline operations at its newspapers in Australia and the U.K.

"News Corp is evolving rapidly into a more digital and increasingly global company with a diverse revenue mix that we believe will drive long-term growth in profits and shareholder returns," Chief Executive Robert Thomson said in response to the latest results.