Lower Advertising Income Weighs Over News Corp’s Quarterly Results

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News Corporation (NASDAQ:NWSA) witnessed a 3% drop in its Q4 fiscal 2014 revenues (fiscal year ends with June). News and information services revenues declined by 6% amid lower advertising income. The company reported adjusted earnings of $0.01 per share as compared to $0.12 in the prior year period. [1] While the company continues to see growth at HarperCollins and REA, print advertising remains a concern.

The company recently completed the acquisition of Harlequin Enterprises from Torstar Corporation for $420 million. Harlequin Enterprises is a Canadian based company that publishes broad range of fiction including romance, relationship, psychological thrillers and women’s fiction. News Corp is aggressively eyeing online real estate advertising operations and it recently announced the purchase of a minority stake in iProperty for $100 million. iProperty is an online property and advertising operator in Southeast Asia. [2]

Overall, the company reported mixed results with double-digit growth in book publishing and digital real estate, while news and information service as well as cable networks faced some headwinds due to lower advertising income and currency fluctuations

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See our complete analysis for News Corporation

Lower Advertising Income Weighs Over News And Information Services

News and information services revenues declined 6% to $1.56 billion as compared to $1.66 billion in the prior year quarter. Segment EBITDA also plunged 38% to $131 million. [1] This can be attributed to a 9% drop in advertising revenues and a 4% decline in circulation revenues. The decline in advertising was wide with a 16% drop in Australia and 1% in the U.K. [2]  A decline in EBITDA can be attributed to the costs related to relocation of the company’s London operations for dual rent and higher expenses related to specific marketing initiatives in the U.K.

It must be noted that the news and information services accounts for more than 40% of the company’s value, according to our estimates. The environment for print industry in particular is challenging. As Internet penetration continues to expand, users increasingly get access to free and abundant information online. We believe that the continuing trend could keep putting a downward pressure on circulation prices and advertising income. The company in its recent earnings call stated that revenue from non-advertising sources will increase significantly over the next five years. This will provide stable growth outlook in the long run given the uneven trends in the advertising marketplace. We estimate advertising income will decline in the near term and forecast advertising revenues for news and information services will be around $3.7 billion by the end of our forecast period.

Book Publishing And Digital Real Estate See Strong Growth

Book publishing revenues increased 10% to $361 million while EBITDA jumped 50% to $33 million. The increase in revenues was primarily due to higher print and digital book sales, principally resulting from the continued success of the Divergent series by Veronica Roth. Higher EBITDA reflects the impact of operational efficiencies and higher contributions to profits from e-books. The revenues from e-book sales rose 23% and accounted for 22% of overall consumer revenues for the quarter. [2] It must be noted that digital books have lower production and distribution costs than print books. We believe HarperCollins will continue to grow strongly as e-book sales pick up. Accordingly, we estimate the book publishing revenue to grow at an average annual rate of 5% and be north of $2 billion by the end of our forecast period.

Digital real estate operations contribute close to 25% to News Corporation’s value, according to our estimates. It includes REA, which owns and operates Australia’s largest residential as well as commercial property websites. The segment’s revenues increased 24% to $113 million and EBITDA grew 35% to $62 million, primarily due to higher pricing and growth in premium products. Digital real estate operations offer high margins to News Corp (45% in 2013). A double-digit growth in this segment will be fruitful for the company in the near term. We expect continued growth in this segment throughout the forecast period. It will be primarily driven by the growth in Australia’s population, which is being reflected on the housing market. Moreover, the company is aggressively eyeing more assets in this space. Apart from iProperty, the company plans to add $50 million to its investment in SEEK Asia, which is into employment listings business. [2]

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Notes:
  1. News Corporation’s SEC Filings [] []
  2. News’ (NWSA) CEO Robert Thomson on Q4 2014 Results – Earnings Call Transcript, Seeking Alpha, Aug 7, 2014 [] [] [] []