Diversity pays off for News

NEWS Corp chief Robert Thomson says the media group’s revenue mix has changed profoundly as it becomes an increasingly digital and global company.

And the business is successfully transitioning to the digital age, with digital advertising and subscriptions rising in Australia, the US and Britain, executive chairman Rupert Murdoch says.

At News Corp’s annual meeting, in New York, Mr Thomson said it had diversified its revenue away from advertising.

Subscriptions and other revenue made up more than 70 per cent of top-line sales in the past year, he said.

“While there is much more to accomplish, closer integration among our companies is helping us to realise our potential and the composition of our revenue mix has changed profoundly,” he said.

News Corp, publisher of the Gold Coast Bulletin, was working hard to fight back against technology giants that had monetised journalism content, Mr Thomson said.

Mr Murdoch said News Corp had “capitalised on the public’s growing appetite for quality journalism”.