Tuesdata: The new new News Corp merger explained in ten graphs

Welcome to Tuesdata, our weekly exploration of the world of marketing and media via numbers.

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What the numbers tell us about the News Corp deal

Today we explore the data that’s driving the strategic rationale of Rupert Murdoch’s plan to bring News Corp back together with Fox Corporation. It’s not certain to happen but most likely it will.

Until the split in 2013, News Corp was one company, with broadcast, screen production and news mastheads across the English speaking world.

The new News Corp was the most diversified after the separation. Most of the Australian businesses - including the company’s newspaper mastheads, News Corp’s stake in Foxtel, Fox Sports Australia, REA Group and book publisher HarperCollins - ended up in the News Corp bucket.

At the time the other, much bigger, half of the family was 21st Century Fox, which included its film and TV-making studio assets, along with its news and sport networks Fox News and Fox Sports. Four years later, Disney bought the studio business, while the news and sport broadcast operation remained within the newly created Fox Corporation.

Fox Corporation is still bigger than News Corp - in profit terms it’s now roughly double the size.

Profits compared

In the 2022 financial year, Fox Corp’s EBITDA profit was $2.96bn. News Corp’s was $1.37bn.

At the time of writing, Fox Corp’s market capitalisation is US$15.17bn. News Corp’s is US$9.43bn.