NWS
CommsNews Corp (Class B)
Price Chart
Market Data
Financials
XBRL · SEC EDGAR2012–2025(14yr)| Metric | FY 2012 | FY 2013 | FY 2014 | FY 2015 | FY 2016 | FY 2017 | FY 2018 | FY 2019 | FY 2020 | FY 2021 | FY 2022 | FY 2023 | FY 2024 | FY 2025Latest | YoY |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | $8.7B | $8.9B | $8.6B | $8.6B | $8.3B | $8.1B | $9.0B | $10.1B | $9.0B | $9.4B | $10.4B | $9.9B | $10.1B | $8.5B | -16.2% |
| Net Income | -$2.1B | $506.0M | $239.0M | -$147.0M | $179.0M | -$738.0M | -$1.5B | $155.0M | -$1.3B | $330.0M | $623.0M | $149.0M | $266.0M | $1.2B | +343.6% |
| Net Margin | -24.0% | 5.7% | 2.8% | -1.7% | 2.2% | -9.1% | -16.8% | 1.5% | -14.1% | 3.5% | 6.0% | 1.5% | 2.6% | 14.0% | +11.3pp |
| Free Cash Flow | — | — | — | $453.0M | $622.0M | $238.0M | $393.0M | $356.0M | $342.0M | $847.0M | $855.0M | $593.0M | $602.0M | — | — |
| FCF Margin | — | — | — | 5.2% | 7.5% | 2.9% | 4.4% | 3.5% | 3.8% | 9.1% | 8.2% | 6.0% | 6.0% | — | — |
| EPS (Diluted) | $-3.58 | $0.87 | $0.41 | $-0.26 | $0.31 | $-1.27 | $-2.60 | $0.26 | $-2.16 | $0.56 | $1.05 | $0.26 | $0.46 | $2.07 | +350.0% |
1. THE BIG PICTURE
News Corp (Class B) is currently a business in tension: it is shedding the skin of a traditional publisher while trying to command the valuation of a digital data provider. While News Corp (Class B) maintains a peer-leading free cash flow margin of 19.9%, its top-line growth is struggling, evidenced by a 16.2% decline in trailing twelve-month revenue (Peer Benchmarking). The path forward relies entirely on whether its "premium content" can be successfully weaponized as high-value training data for AI platforms to offset the structural decline in traditional advertising and print media.
2. WHERE THE RISKS HIT HARDEST
News Corp (Class B)’s "commitment to premium content" (10-K Item 1) is directly threatened by the proliferation of AI-generated search overviews. These tools can satisfy user queries using News Corp (Class B)’s data without ever sending a reader to its websites, which risks "commoditizing content" and reducing the ability to monetize intellectual property (Risks).
Furthermore, the high-margin Digital Real Estate Services segment—a key growth pillar—is highly sensitive to "elevated interest rates" (Risks). While the segment saw a 6% revenue increase in the most recent quarter, persistent macroeconomic volatility in the U.S. housing market acts as a ceiling on the "lead and transaction volumes" that News Corp (Class B) relies on for its listing products (10-Q).
3. WHAT THE NUMBERS SAY TOGETHER
The financial data reveals a sharp divergence between News Corp (Class B)’s efficiency and its growth trajectory. News Corp (Class B) leads its peer group with a 19.9% FCFFCFFree Cash Flow — cash left after paying for operations and capital investments; what the company can actually spend, save, or return to shareholders margin, yet it ranks last in revenue growth at -16.2% (Peer Benchmarking). This suggests that while management is highly effective at extracting cash from the existing portfolio, the portfolio itself is shrinking. The most recent quarter showed a 6% revenue increase to $2.36 billion, a significant improvement over the TTMTTMTrailing Twelve Months — the most recent full year of financial data, updated on a rolling basis each quarter figure, which management attributes to growth at Dow Jones and a $15 million contribution from recent acquisitions in Book Publishing (10-Q).
Sentiment remains skeptical, as evidenced by a high short interest of 14.2% of the float (Yahoo Finance). Investors should note that while revenues grew 6% in the latest quarter, net income actually fell 10% to $193 million, partly due to a $16 million inventory write-off at HarperCollins and $30 million in restructuring and impairment charges (10-Q).
4. IS IT WORTH IT AT THIS PRICE?
At a forward P/EP/EPrice-to-Earnings ratio — share price divided by annual earnings per share; how much investors pay per dollar of profit. Higher P/E = higher growth expectations of 22.0x, News Corp (Class B) trades at a 182% premium to the peer median of 7.8x (Peer Benchmarking). The market is pricing in approximately 5.3% long-term growth (CAPM analysis). This valuation is difficult to reconcile with a company that recently experienced a double-digit revenue contraction, even if the most recent quarter showed signs of stabilization.
The premium suggests investors are paying for the "durability" of the Dow Jones and Real Estate brands rather than immediate growth. However, if growth were to slow to a GDP-pace of 2.5%, the justified multiple would drop to 13.6x, representing nearly 38% downside from current levels (CAPM analysis). For the current price to be right, News Corp (Class B)’s AI licensing deals must not only replace lost advertising revenue but also drive a structural expansion in margins that hasn't yet appeared in the net income line.
5. WHAT WOULD CHANGE THIS VIEW?
- Constructive if AI licensing revenue is broken out as a high-margin, recurring revenue stream that consistently offsets the "flat" performance of the News Media segment.
- Cautious if short interest (currently 14.2%) continues to rise, signaling that professional traders expect the "commoditization of content" by AI platforms to outpace News Corp (Class B)'s licensing efforts.
- Cautious if net income continues to decline despite revenue growth, indicating that the costs of "continually innovating" to remain competitive are eroding News Corp (Class B)'s cash flow advantage.
6. BOTTOM LINE
Structural Advantage: A proprietary archive of global business data and high-intent real estate platforms that are difficult for AI models to replicate without licensing. Bottom Line: News Corp (Class B) is an expensive bet on a legacy giant successfully pivoting to an AI-data provider, but the current valuation leaves no room for error in that transition.
1. Top 5 Material Risks
- Generative AI and Digital Competition: The proliferation of AI-generated content and search overviews reduces traffic to News Corp (Class B) digital properties and threatens subscriber demand. This competition, often from platforms with greater resources, risks commoditizing content and reducing News Corp (Class B)'s ability to monetize its intellectual property.
- Macroeconomic and Market Conditions: Economic weakness, including inflationary pressures and elevated interest rates, has negatively impacted the U.S. real estate market, leading to lower lead and transaction volumes. These conditions also contribute to softer consumer spending in the book publishing industry.
- Advertising Revenue Decline: News Corp (Class B) relies heavily on advertising sales, which are currently pressured by audience fragmentation, the shift to programmatic buying, and algorithmic changes on large digital platforms that control traffic and ad-serving technologies.
- Strategic Transactions and Integration: Acquisitions and divestitures, such as the recent sale of Foxtel, involve risks related to integration, potential loss of key personnel, and the possibility of recording non-cash impairment charges if acquired assets fail to perform as anticipated.
- Supply Chain and Distribution Costs: Printing and distribution costs for books and newspapers are volatile and subject to inflationary pressures, labor shortages, and consolidation among suppliers, which can disrupt operations and increase expenses.
2. Company-Specific Risks
- NAR Operating Agreement: Move, the digital real estate business, operates Realtor.com® under a perpetual agreement with the National Association of Realtors (NAR). Termination of this agreement would require the transfer of software and advertiser data to NAR, allowing them to operate the site independently or with a competitor.
- Murdoch Family Trust Voting Power: The Murdoch Family Trust beneficially owns approximately 40.6% of News Corp (Class B) Class B Common Stock, creating a concentration of voting power that increases the likelihood of the trust’s supported proposals being adopted.
- Overlapping Governance with FOX: The Chair of News Corp (Class B), Lachlan K. Murdoch, also serves as Executive Chair and CEO of FOX. This overlap may create conflicts of interest regarding corporate opportunities, though News Corp (Class B)’s by-laws provide that overlapping persons are not liable for directing certain opportunities to FOX.
- Dependency on Key Suppliers: News Corp (Class B) relies on a limited number of third-party providers for critical infrastructure, specifically Amazon Web Services for cloud-based services and Google for enterprise and workspace services.
3. Regulatory/Legal Risks
- Real Estate Litigation: Settlements of class action lawsuits against brokerages and the NAR have led to the elimination of the cooperative compensation rule. This change creates uncertainty regarding how home buyers and sellers engage with agents, which could reduce the number of leads purchased from Move.
- U.K. Press and Radio Regulation: News Corp (Class B) newspaper publishing businesses in the U.K. are subject to oversight following the Leveson inquiry, and its radio stations are regulated by Ofcom.
- Data Privacy Compliance: News Corp (Class B) is subject to complex, evolving data privacy laws, including the E.U.’s GDPR, the UK GDPR, and various U.S. state privacy laws. Failure to comply can result in significant penalties, remediation costs, and restrictions on News Corp (Class B)’s ability to target advertising.
- Benchmark Regulation: The Dow Jones Energy business provides benchmarks that are subject to regulatory frameworks in the E.U. and other jurisdictions.
4. Financial Impact Map
Generative AI and Digital Competition → Advertising Revenue and Subscription Revenue → Reduced traffic and subscriber demand for digital products. Macroeconomic and Market Conditions → Digital Real Estate Services Segment Revenue → Depressed real estate lead and transaction volumes. Advertising Revenue Decline → Advertising Revenue → Lower expenditures from retail, technology, and finance sectors due to economic uncertainty. Strategic Transactions → Impairment Charges → Potential non-cash write-downs of goodwill and intangible assets if acquisitions fail to meet performance expectations. Supply Chain and Distribution Costs → Operating Expenses → Increased costs for paper, printing, and distribution services.
Recent Filings
| Form | Filed | Period |
|---|---|---|
| 10-Q | Feb 2026 | Dec 2025 |
| 14A | Oct 2025 | — |
| 10-K | Aug 2025 | Jun 2025 |
AI-extracted key facts from press releases and SEC filings. Significance 1–10.
News Corp Targets $1B Dow Jones EBITDA Within Five Years; Digital Revenue Mix Hits 62%
- ▸Dow Jones sets $1B EBITDA target within five years
- ▸Fiscal 2025 free cash flow reached $571M
- ▸Digital revenue mix increased to 62% in fiscal 2025 from 22% in 2014
- ▸Reported 11 consecutive quarters of year-over-year EBITDA growth
- ▸Share buyback program running at 4x previous year's level
News Corp Targets $1 Billion Annual Dow Jones EBITDA Within Five Years
- ▸Targeting $1B annual Dow Jones segment EBITDA within five years
- ▸Five-year goal represents 70% increase over fiscal 2025 levels
- ▸Dow Jones revenue base now 82% digital and 80% recurring
- ▸Achieved 17% compound annual segment EBITDA growth from 2018 to 2025
- ▸Dow Jones segment margin nearly doubled to 25.2% since 2018
News Corp expands share buyback authorization by US$1 billion for Class A and B stock
- ▸Authorized additional US$1.00 billion for Class A and Class B share repurchases
- ▸Complements existing semi-annual dividend of US$0.10 per share
- ▸Management cites confidence in long-term prospects and earnings per share support
- ▸Projects US$9.3 billion revenue and US$754 million earnings by 2028
- ▸Core business focus remains digital real estate and professional information services