#News Corp. shares rise on narrowed loss as revenue jumps 30 percent

News Corp. said its quarterly revenue jumped 30 percent, driven by growth in its digital real-estate, book-publishing and newspaper divisions.

Shares of the media giant, whose properties include The New York Post, The Wall Street Journal and HarperCollins, surged as much as 6 percent in early trading on Friday.

The shares recently changed hands at $25.08, up 1 percent.

For the period ended June 30, the New York-based company said late Thursday it narrowed its net loss to $14 million, or 2 cents a share, from the year-ago period $397 million, or 67 cents a share.

Adjusted EPS totaled 16 cents a share. Revenue jumped 30 percent to $2.49 billion from $1.92 billion. Analysts predicted EPS of 3 cents on revenue of $2.21 billion.

News Corp.’s news media segment, which includes the New York Post and the London Sun, reported a 21 percent jump in revenue to $595 million.

Meanwhile, the book-publishing division also saw a 21 percent revenue gain to $493 million, thanks to sales of the “Bridgerton” series of books by Julia Quinn and “The Women of the Bible Speak” by Shannon Bream.

Revenue at Dow Jones, which publishes the Wall Street Journal and Barron’s, rose 18 percent to $449 million, driven by a 45 percent gain in advertising sales as the easing of the pandemic encouraged marketers to spend more. Strong circulation and subscription sales, as well as the company’s acquisition of Investor’s Business Daily, also bolstered revenue.