Rupert Murdoch's News Corp registers $817m loss as its newspapers' value fall

Mr Murdoch’s media empire takes a hit as it slashes the value of a pay TV channel and three newspaper titles in Australia

Revenue declined from $8.29bn to $8.12bn (Reuters)

Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp recorded an $817m (£629m) loss in the full 2017 financial year due to a fall in the value of its UK and Australian newspapers.

Revenue declined from $8.29bn to $8.12bn, a 2 per cent drop reflecting lower print advertising revenues and foreign currency fluctuations.

The company said a charge of $785m reflected the write-down of UK and Australian newspapers.

Mr Murdoch’s Australian media arm looks set to carry out major cost-cutting operations. A repeat of the $40m cuts from 2017 is set to continue into 2018.

Up to 70 photographers in News Corp’s Australia arm were made redundant in May, including forced lay-offs for subeditors and designers.

Revenue from its digital news and information arm rose steadily at 3 per cent, primarily driven by digital subscription services from titles such as The Times and The Sunday Times.

The Wall Street Journal recorded over a million paid subscribers in the full financial year.

News Corp wrote down the value in Foxtel, an Australian pay TV company, in which it has a 50 per cent stake. The company also slashed the value of The Australian, The Daily Telegraph and The Herald Sun titles it owns in Australia by 40 per cent.

Speaking on fake news disrupting main stream media, chief executive Robert Thomson said he believed News Corp prompted digital platforms to address a “dysfunctional content eco-system, in which the fake and the fraudulent have flourished”.

He added: “We are now in advanced discussions with those platforms over the creation of payment mechanisms for news of verified veracity.”