News Corporation Rupert Murdoch consider making Wall Street Journal online free

NEWS Corporation chairman Rupert Murdoch said today the group was continuing to consider making the online version of the Wall Street Journal free, once News Corp formally takes control of Dow Jones next month.

NEWS Corporation chairman Rupert Murdoch said today the group was continuing to consider making the online version of the Wall Street Journal free, once News Corp formally takes control of Dow Jones next month.

Mr Murdoch’s comments came as News Corp's operating income rose 23 per cent to $US1.05 billion ($1.135 billion), as its movie business threw in a strong performance.

It boosted revenue by 19 per cent while posting a 13 per cent decline in first-quarter net earnings, as the global media giant spent on its cable, internet and newspaper businesses to build growth.

The news and entertainment company today posted a net income of $US732 million ($789.01 million), down from $US851 million in the same quarter last year.

But the lower comparable result was attributed to the inclusion, in the previous quarter, of gains from the sale of shares.

Mr Murdoch told a teleconference on the company’s results yesterday that News Corp was proceeding with “examining the possibilities” of making the Wall Street Journal’s online site, WSJ.com, free. Mr Murdoch said the subscription-based website had “passed a million people who are paying for it”.

However, making the site free would achieve further growth in online readership, and therefore more advertising: “If that jumped to 10 or 20 million people, that would be a wonderful thing for the brand.” However, he pointed out that there were still further considerations to be ironed out on this front, such as how moving to becoming a free site “would affect Factiva or the (Dow Jones) Newswires.”



Double-digit revenue increases in the film business and cable network division offset falls in global newspaper earnings and television.

Mr Murdoch said a 19 per cent increase in revenue to $US7.1 billion underscored the profit, allowing News Corp to invest and stay profitable.

Mr Murdoch said News Corp looked forward to strong profit growth in the future.

“The strength of our financial results during the first quarter is yet another illustration of our ability to deliver sustained growth, while concurrently investing in tomorrow's profit generators,” Mr Murdoch said.

“The 19 per cent revenue growth and 23 per cent operating income growth in the quarter was achieved despite spending to expand our cable portfolio both domestically and internationally, despite continued investment in broadening our internet offerings, and despite additional costs associated with upgrading the colour capacity at our newspaper group.

“We expect the development of these assets to drive future growth, much as our investments in the Fox News Channel and SKY Italia have translated into strong profit growth today.

“The financial momentum at these businesses, along with the success of our theatrical slate in the quarter, has given us a great start to fiscal 2008 and we look forward to building upon the record results we delivered during fiscal 2007.”