NewsCorp UK profits slump
THE BRITISH arm of Rupert Murdoch’s NewsCorp empire, publisher of The Sun and The Times, suffered a steep fall in profits last year.
NewsCorp Investments, the UK holding company within News International group, saw profits plunge 74 per cent to £85.7million, according to accounts filed at Companies House.
The figures for the year to June 30, 2007 compare with £320.8million previously when there was a one-off gain of £299million from disposals.
News Group Newspapers, the publisher of The Sun and the News of the World, suffered an 8.4 per cent drop in profits to £10.7million as the titles suffered plunging sales.
Times Newspapers, publisher of The Times and The Sunday Times, remained deeply in the red, with losses of £34.9million, on top of £47.8million losses in the previous year.
At News Magazines, publisher of Love It!, losses increased from £8.5million to £8.9million. There were also losses of £16.5million at free-sheet thelondonpaper which is locked in a costly battle with rival London Lite produced by Daily Mail & General Trust.
NewsCorp Investments’ annual turnover fell 3.1 per cent to £1.41 billion. Operating profits rose 5.7 per cent to £97.6million before one-off charges, including £12.7 million for redundancies on top of £61.5million to cover job losses in the previous year.