News Corp CEO Thomson: No Trump slump at WSJ

The following interaction occurred during News Corp.’s third-quarter earnings call:

Alexia Quadrani — JPMorgan — Analyst

Thank you. My question’s on the Journal, Dow Jones. When you look at the Wall Street Journal digital subscription, do you think that the change in administration here in the U.S. has a positive? Is it a tailwind going forward for future digital subscriptions? Or is it a negative? Or is it neutral? I’m sure curious to hear how you think the change in the political environment may or may not influence the digital sub growth there.

Robert Thomson — Chief Executive Officer

Well, the key factor for us is the quality of the Wall Street Journal, the quality of the journalism, the quality of the leadership. We have a great team at Dow Jones with Almar Latour and Josh Stinchcomb, our Chief Revenue Officer, who’ve done a sterling job collectively in developing our digital expertise. So we don’t have to worry about a Trump bump becoming a Trump slump as you might see in other places. The Wall Street Journal’s journalism obviously rises above the — sort of gormless rhetoric, the pants-tearing, the jaundiced journalism that you see in some other places. And so the Dow Jones results certainly rise above those of the New York Times, both in circulation now in the news segment and in digital advertising, which was almost double that of the New York Times. And so it is, in essence, the enduring quality of the Journal that gives us momentum. And those are very positive wins that we’re seeing now and are confident that we’ll see in the future.

To read the entire conference call transcript, go here.