Wall Street Journal parent beats earnings estimate

The parent of the Wall Street Journal beat analyst estimates for its fourth quarter earnings but fell shy of estimates for its revenue.

Excluding gains and charges, the company reported earnings of 11 cents per share, higher than the expected earnings of 10 cents per share.

News Corp. reported fiscal 2017 fourth quarter total revenues of $2.08 billion, a 7 percent decline as compared to $2.23 billion in the prior year period. The revenue was below Wall Street expectations of $2.11 billion in revenue.

The decline reflects the $112 million impact from the additional week in the prior year quarter and lower print advertising revenues at its business segment that includes The Journal, Marketwatch.com and Barron’s.

In the news and information services segment of the company, revenue fell 10 percent to $1.28 billion from $1.42 billion in the fourth quarter of 2016.

Earnings for news and information fell 36 percent in the fourth quarter to $103 million from $160 million in the 2016 quarter.

Dow Jones saw a 10 percent increase in its circulation revenues, led by The Journal.

The Journal’s average daily digital-only subscribers in the three months ended June 30 were 1.27 million compared to 948,000 in the prior year.

Read the entire earnings release here.