News Corp. announced Thursday that it will lay off around 1,250 employees, or 5% of its staff, in the latest round of layoffs to hammer the media and technology industries in recent months.
Rupert Murdoch’s media group, which includes The Wall Street Journal, The New York Post, Barron’s, and HarperCollins, has stated that the difficult economic situation and increased interest rates have harmed the corporation.
On Thursday, the business published earnings results, stating that its quarterly revenue declined 7% year over year to $2.52 billion. Media organisations, particularly those in digital media, have been struggling to compete in a difficult advertising environment.
“Just as our company passed the stress test of the pandemic with record profits, the initiatives now underway, including an expected 5 percent headcount reduction, or around 1,250 positions this calendar year, will create a robust platform for future growth,” CEO Robert Thomson said in the earnings release Thursday.
Despite “clear worldwide problems,” Thomson’s professional information unit at Dow Jones, the Journal’s publisher, saw revenue increase. The whole Dow Jones segment’s quarterly sales increased 11% year over year.
Murdoch and his son Lachlan Murdoch put off the proposed merger of News Corp. and Fox Corp. last month after finding that “a combination is not ideal for shareholders” of either company at this time.
The idea was cancelled at the same time that News Corp. was in advanced discussions to sell its investment in Move Inc., the parent company of Realtor.com, to commercial real estate firm CoStar Group. The business stated on Thursday that it was still involved in such conversations.
