Murdoch’s News Corp to cut 5% of staff after earnings plunge

BILLIONAIRE Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp said it will cut 5 per cent of its staff this year, or about 1,250 positions, across its empire after earnings plunged in its book publishing, news media and digital real estate divisions.

The reductions are “a necessary response” amid a “surge in interest rates and persistent inflation,” chief executive officer Robert Thomson said on the New York-based media conglomerate’s second-quarter earnings call on Thursday (Feb 9).

Employees will be let go across all the group’s businesses, which include the Wall Street Journal, publisher HarperCollins, and The Times and The Sun newspapers in the UK, according to Thomson. The annual savings will be at least US$130 million, he said.

Sales fell 7.2 per cent to US$2.52 billion in the fiscal quarter ended Dec 31, the publisher reported on Thursday. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation were down 30 per cent to US$409 million.

News Corp had about 25,500 employees, including 9,000 in the US, 5,500 in Britain and 8,000 in Australia as of June, it said in its latest annual report. Some 4,000 are represented by unions.

The announcement is the latest in a string of job cuts across technology and media businesses, following reductions of 7,000 at The Walt Disney and 6,650 at Dell Technologies earlier this week.

Management declined to comment on the potential sale of News Corp’s stake in online real estate business Move Inc, after Murdoch withdrew a proposal to rejoin News Corp with Murdoch’s other business Fox.

Shares fell 1.4 per cent to US$20.59 on Thursday in New York. BLOOMBERG