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

Owner of the Sunday Times and Wall Street Journal to cut about 1,250 staff globally

Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation will cut about 5% of its workforce globally. Photograph: Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images

Fri Feb 10 2023 - 13:07

Billionaire Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation 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 Robert Thomson said on the New York-based media conglomerate’s second-quarter earnings call on Thursday.

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 $130 million (€122 million), he said.

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

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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 Disney and 6,650 at Dell earlier this week.

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

Shares fell 1.4% in New York. – Bloomberg

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