News Corp

What does News Corp own?
News Corp owns a portfolio of approximately 20 media and information brands across four segments. The Dow Jones segment includes The Wall Street Journal, Barron's, MarketWatch, Investor's Business Daily, and Factiva. Digital Real Estate Services includes REA Group in Australia and Realtor.com in the United States. Book Publishing operates HarperCollins globally. News Media includes The Times, The Sun, The Australian, the New York Post, and other newspapers in Australia, the UK, and the US.

Is News Corp publicly traded?
Yes, News Corp is publicly traded on NASDAQ under tickers NWSA (Class A) and NWS (Class B). The company has been listed since its spin-off from the original News Corporation in June 2013. Class A shares carry one vote per share, while Class B shares carry ten votes per share, giving the Murdoch family effective voting control.

Who founded News Corp?
News Corp was created in 2013 as a spin-off from the original News Corporation, which was founded by Rupert Murdoch. Murdoch built the original News Corporation over six decades, starting with a single newspaper in Adelaide, Australia, inherited from his father in 1952. The 2013 split separated the publishing and information assets (News Corp) from the entertainment assets (21st Century Fox).

Where is News Corp headquartered?
News Corp is headquartered in New York City, New York, USA. The company's corporate offices are located in Manhattan, where executive leadership, corporate finance, and centralized functions are based. Major operational hubs also exist in London and Melbourne.

How many brands does News Corp own?
News Corp owns approximately 20 notable media and information brands across its four segments. The most prominent include The Wall Street Journal, Barron's, HarperCollins, REA Group, Realtor.com, The Times, The Sun, The Australian, and the New York Post.

Who owns News Corp?
News Corp is publicly traded, but the Murdoch family controls the company through a dual-class share structure. LGC Holdco, a company owned by trusts benefiting Lachlan Murdoch and his younger sisters, holds approximately 33.1% of Class B common stock with ten votes per share. Voting control rests solely with Lachlan Murdoch. Institutional investors hold the majority of Class A shares. Rupert Murdoch serves as Chairman Emeritus.

What is News Corp's revenue?
News Corp reported fiscal 2025 revenue of $8.45 billion, a 2% increase from $8.25 billion in fiscal 2024. Net income from continuing operations was $648 million, up 71% year over year. Total Segment EBITDA reached a record $1.42 billion. The company's fiscal year ends June 30.

The history of News Corp is inseparable from the history of its predecessor, the original News Corporation, which Rupert Murdoch built over six decades into one of the world's largest media empires.

Rupert Murdoch inherited The News, an Adelaide newspaper, from his father Sir Keith Murdoch in 1952. He expanded rapidly through acquisition, buying The Daily Mirror in Sydney in 1960, The Sun in London in 1969, and The Times of London in 1981. In 1985, Murdoch purchased 20th Century Fox for $575 million and launched the Fox Broadcasting Company, establishing a foothold in American television.

The original News Corporation acquired Dow Jones and Company, publisher of The Wall Street Journal, for $5 billion in 2007. The Dow Jones acquisition was the largest in the company's history at that point and gave News Corporation control of one of the most influential financial news brands in the world. The deal was controversial. The Bancroft family, which had controlled Dow Jones for over a century, initially resisted Murdoch's overtures before accepting a premium offer of $60 per share.

HarperCollins was formed in 1987 when News Corporation purchased the publishing operations of Harper and Row for $300 million, later merging with William Collins and Sons in 1990. The company also acquired Move, operator of Realtor.com, in 2014 for $950 million, establishing the Digital Real Estate Services segment's presence in the United States market.

The phone hacking scandal that forced the corporate split emerged in July 2011, when it was revealed that journalists at the News of the World, a British tabloid owned by News International (a News Corporation subsidiary), had illegally accessed the voicemail messages of hundreds of public figures and crime victims. The scandal led to the closure of the 168-year-old News of the World, multiple arrests, and a parliamentary inquiry. The reputational damage and regulatory scrutiny contributed to Rupert Murdoch's decision to split the company.

The split was completed on June 28, 2013. Shareholders received one share of News Corp for every four shares of the original News Corporation they held. The new News Corp began trading on NASDAQ on July 1, 2013, at approximately $15 per share.

Following the spin-off, News Corp focused on digital transformation. Dow Jones grew its digital subscriber base from approximately 700,000 in 2013 to over 4.6 million by 2025, with digital revenues representing 82% of total Dow Jones revenue in fiscal 2025. The company expanded Dow Jones's professional information business through the acquisition of Risk and Compliance in 2019 and Investor's Business Daily in 2021 for $275 million.

In December 2024, News Corp announced the sale of Foxtel, its Australian pay television and streaming subsidiary, to DAZN for A$3.4 billion ($2.1 billion) including debt. The transaction closed on April 2, 2025, after receiving approval from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission and the Foreign Investment Review Board. News Corp received a 6% equity stake in DAZN and A$592 million in repaid shareholder loans at completion.

In September 2025, the Murdoch Family Trust matter was resolved. The litigation, which had been ongoing in Nevada probate court, centered on Rupert Murdoch's attempt to amend the trust to ensure Lachlan Murdoch retained sole voting control of News Corp and Fox Corporation after Rupert's death. Under the settlement, new trusts were established for the benefit of Lachlan Murdoch and his younger sisters Grace and Chloe. Lachlan Murdoch's three older siblings, Prudence MacLeod, Elisabeth Murdoch, and James Murdoch, ceased to be beneficiaries in any trust holding shares in News Corp or Fox Corporation and received cash consideration funded in part through the public sale of approximately 14.2 million shares of News Corp Class B common stock. LGC Holdco, owned by the remaining beneficiary trusts, now holds approximately 33.1% of News Corp's Class B common stock, with voting control resting solely with Lachlan Murdoch through his role as managing director.

In early fiscal 2026, News Corp's board authorized a new $1 billion stock repurchase program, in addition to approximately $300 million remaining from a previous authorization. The company also announced plans to launch The California Post, a new Los Angeles-based news masthead, in early 2026.

The most significant controversy associated with News Corp is the phone hacking scandal that affected its predecessor, the original News Corporation. In July 2011, it was revealed that journalists at the News of the World, a British Sunday tabloid, had illegally accessed voicemail messages of celebrities, politicians, and crime victims, including a murdered schoolgirl named Milly Dowler. The scandal led to the closure of the 168-year-old newspaper, multiple criminal convictions of journalists and executives, and a parliamentary inquiry into press ethics. The original News Corporation paid millions in settlements to victims. The scandal was a primary driver of the 2013 corporate split, as the board sought to isolate the reputational damage in the publishing entity.

The Murdoch Family Trust litigation, which played out in Nevada probate court from 2023 to 2025, created public scrutiny of the company's governance. Rupert Murdoch attempted to amend the trust to consolidate voting control with Lachlan Murdoch, overriding the original terms that would have divided voting control equally among his four oldest children. The court proceedings were sealed, but reporting by The New York Times and other outlets revealed the family conflict. The September 2025 settlement resolved the litigation, with Lachlan retaining sole voting control and his three older siblings departing with cash consideration.

News Corp's UK newspaper operations have faced ongoing regulatory scrutiny under the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO), the self-regulatory body established in the wake of the Leveson Inquiry. The Times and The Sun have been subject to IPSO rulings on accuracy and privacy complaints, though no major regulatory actions have been taken against News Corp itself in recent years.