The story of News Corp in recent years has been a struggle to evolve from old media to new – from print to digital. Most obviously, that’s been seen in the online property classifieds business REA Group, where News holds a 62% stake. When we first upgraded News in 2013, that stake had a market value of $2.5 billion – about a quarter of News’s then market capitalisation of $10 billon. Now it’s worth $9.3 billon – around $16 per News Corp share, or 80% of the company’s $11.5 billion market cap.
The evolution has also been seen in books, where the higher margins from digital books has helped increase the EBITDA margin (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) from 10.4% in 2013 to 12.8%, thereby converting 3% annual revenue growth into a 6% annual EBITDA growth.
The shift to digital has been just as pronounced in what the company used to call its News and Information Services (NIS) division, but which this year has been split into Dow Jones and News Media, housing the company’s oldest, “printiest” media titles like The Australian and The Courier Mail in Australia, The Times and The Sun in the UK and the New York Post in the US.
Dow Jones, by contrast, comprises a string of assets better suited to the digital age, including The Wall Street Journal, Barron’s, MarketWatch and the eponymous Dow Jones professional information businesses.
Denne historien er fra November 2020-utgaven av Money Magazine Australia.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent ? Logg på
Denne historien er fra November 2020-utgaven av Money Magazine Australia.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
An outrageous, beautiful monopoly
Telstra's mobile business is a cash machine with few competitors, giving it the highest returns in the world.
Drop the anchor to judge value
Buying and selling decisions should be based on where a stock price is going, not where it has been.
Powering the AI boom
Beyond the software and chipmakers, where will the energy come from?
Get into life
Tucked inside super are products that can protect you from life's inevitable uncertainties.
Paths to home ownership
Taking the road less travelled can sometimes deliver unexpected benefits.
Sold! Quick ways to add value
Small, strategic changes can have a big impact on the look and feel of your home. And get you a better price on auction day.
Money lessons the kids need to know
Your children can learn a lot from your past money mishaps. Here are eight financial conversations I have had with mine.
Property-investing rules: are they likely to change?
The pressure for the government to curb the tax benefits of tax concessions, such as negative gearing and the capital gains tax discount, is unrelenting. Most recently, independent senators David Pocock and Jacqui Lambie proposed five options for paring back investment property tax concessions, with savings to the Federal budget of up to $60 billion over the next decade.
What's love got to do with it?
A rollercoaster of emotions could be driving poor crypto behaviour.
Are we ready to be cash-free?
Saying goodbye to our piggy banks too soon could leave small businesses in the dark when problems arise.
