News Corporation, stylized as News Corp, is an American mass media and publishing company headquartered in

Midtown Manhattan Midtown Manhattan is the central portion of the New York City borough of Manhattan and serves as the city's primary central business district. Midtown is home to some of the city's most prominent buildings, including the Empire State Buildin ...

, New York City. The second incarnation of the original News Corporation, it was formed on June 28, 2013, following a

spin-off Spin-off may refer to: *Spin-off (media), a media work derived from an existing work *Corporate spin-off, a type of corporate action that forms a new company or entity * Government spin-off, civilian goods which are the result of military or gove ...

of the media outlets of the original News Corp as

21st Century Fox Twenty-First Century Fox, Inc., doing business as 21st Century Fox (21CF), was an American multinational mass media corporation that was based in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It was one of the two companies formed on June 28, 2013, f ...

. Operating across digital real estate information, news media, book publishing, and cable television, News Corp's notable assets include

Dow Jones & Company Dow Jones & Company, Inc. is an American publishing firm owned by News Corp and led by CEO Almar Latour. The company publishes ''The Wall Street Journal'', ''Barron's'', ''MarketWatch'', ''Mansion Global'', ''Financial News'' and ''Private Equ ...

(publisher of '' The Wall Street Journal''), News UK (publisher of '' The Sun'' and '' The Times''),

News Corp Australia News Corp Australia is an Australian media conglomerate and wholly owned subsidiary of the American News Corp. One of Australia's largest media conglomerates, News Corp Australia employs more than 8,000 staff nationwide and approximately 3,00 ...

, REA Group (operator of realestate.com.au),

Realtor.com Realtor.com is a real estate listings website operated by the News Corp subsidiary Move, Inc. and based in Santa Clara, California. It is the second most visited real estate listings website in the United States as of 2021, with over 100 million ...

, and book publisher HarperCollins. It is one of two companies that succeeded the original News Corporation, alongside 21st Century Fox—which consisted of broadcasting and media properties such as Fox Entertainment Group. The spin-out was structured so that 21st Century Fox was the legal continuation of the original News Corporation, with the new News Corp being a new company formed by a stock split. Following the acquisition of a majority of 21st Century Fox assets by The Walt Disney Company in 2019, Fox Corporation, which is News Corp's sister company and successor to the former 21st Century Fox, is also owned and controlled by the Murdoch family.

History

Formation

On June 28, 2012, Rupert Murdoch announced that News Corporation's publishing operations would be spun off to form a new, publicly traded company. Murdoch stated that performing this split would "unlock the true value of both companies and their distinct assets, enabling investors to benefit from the separate strategic opportunities resulting from more focused management of each division". The move also came in the wake of a series of

scandals A scandal can be broadly defined as the strong social reactions of outrage, anger, or surprise, when accusations or rumours circulate or appear for some reason, regarding a person or persons who are perceived to have transgressed in some way. Th ...

that had damaged the reputation of multiple News Corporation-owned properties. Robert James Thomson, editor of '' The Wall Street Journal'', was announced as the initial chief operating officer for the company; while Murdoch would not serve as CEO, he remained chairman and a shareholder of the new News Corp. Thomson promised that the new company would "cultivate a

start-up A startup or start-up is a company or project undertaken by an entrepreneur to seek, develop, and validate a scalable business model. While entrepreneurship refers to all new businesses, including self-employment and businesses that never intend t ...

sensibility even though we already work for the world's most established and prestigious diversified media and information services company" and would emphasize building new business models around its properties and content. The logo of the new News Corporation was unveiled at an investor presentation on May 28, 2013; the

handwritten Handwriting is the writing done with a writing instrument, such as a pen or pencil, in the hand. Handwriting includes both printing and cursive styles and is separate from formal calligraphy or typeface. Because each person's handwriting is u ...

logo uses script based on Murdoch's own handwriting. News Corp's board approved the split on May 24, 2013, while shareholders approved the split on June 11; Preliminary trading on the

Australian Securities Exchange Australian Securities Exchange Ltd or ASX, is an Australian public company that operates Australia's primary securities exchange, the Australian Securities Exchange (sometimes referred to outside of Australia as, or confused within Australia as ...

of the new News Corp's class B stock began on June 19, 2013, at around $15 per share; a value slightly lower than expected by some analysts. The shares fell in price by 3% to $14.55 per share, valuing the new company at around $7.9 billion US. The corporate split was finalized on June 28, 2013; during the stock splitting process, one share of the new News Corp was given to shareholders for every four shares they owned in the former News Corp. The current News Corp began trading on the

NASDAQ The Nasdaq Stock Market () (National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations Stock Market) is an American stock exchange based in New York City. It is the most active stock trading venue in the US by volume, and ranked second ...

stock exchange under the symbol "NWS" on July 1, 2013; at the same time, the former News Corporation (which encompassed purely of media properties, such as Fox Entertainment Group and

20th Century Fox 20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm of Walt Dis ...

) was renamed

After the split

On September 4, 2013, News Corp announced that it would sell the Dow Jones Local Media Group, a group of 33 local newspapers, to Newcastle Investment Corp.—an affiliate of Fortress Investment Group, for $87 million. The newspapers will be operated by GateHouse Media, a newspaper group owned by Fortress. Robert Thomson indicated that the newspapers "were not strategically consistent with the emerging portfolio" of the company. GateHouse then filed for prepackaged Chapter 11 bankruptcy on September 27, 2013, to restructure its debt obligations to accommodate the acquisition. then GateHouse emerged from bankruptcy on November 26, 2013. On December 20, 2013, News Corp announced its acquisition of

Dublin, Ireland Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 cen ...

-based social news agency

Storyful Storyful is a social media intelligence agency headquartered in Dublin, Ireland that is a subsidiary of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp offering services such as social news monitoring, video licensing, and reputation risk management tools for corpo ...

, a startup founded by journalist Mark Little. At the time, Storyful was described as "scour ng social-media services like Twitter and Instagram" to discover user-generated content—"breaking news and viral online content"—and after sourcing, to then verify, acquire, and distribute it. Storyful had, for instance, reported 2013 results of 750m views of user-generated videos by its partners. The cost of the Storyful acquisition was €18 million (£15m, US$25m), and marked News Corp's first acquisition since the split. News Corp CEO at the time, Robert Thomson, stated that the service had "become the village square for valuable video, using journalistic sensibility, integrity and creativity", and that with the acquisition, News Corp would "define the opportunities that the digital landscape presents, rather than simply adapt to them". On May 2, 2014, News Corp acquired romance novel publisher Harlequin Enterprises from Torstar for $415 million. The deal closed on August 1; it is now operated as a subsidiary of News Corp's HarperCollins. On September 30, 2014, News Corp announced its acquisition of

Move, Inc. Move, Inc. is a real estate listing company based in Santa Clara, California. The company operates the Move Network of real estate websites, the largest of which is Realtor.com. Move has a longstanding partnership with the National Association of R ...

, a real estate listings company and owner of

, a 20% stake of which was, at the time, owned by REA Group, a publicly traded subsidiary of News Corp Australia. News Corp also began making investments in India in late 2014, such as a $30 million investment in real estate site ProTiger in November, the December 2014 purchase of BigDecisions.com, a financial planning website, and the acquisition of Indian media firm

VCCircle VCCircle, founded in 2005, is an Indian information services group with presence in online business news, data, events and training for private equity and venture capital fund managers, entrepreneurs, investment bankers, corporate executives and ...

in March 2015. In October 2015, News Corp sold its digital education brand Amplify to a management team supported by a group of private investors for an undisclosed sum. In June 2016, News Corp acquired Wireless Group (formerly UTV Media), a British radio broadcaster, for $296 million In January 2020, News Corp sold Unruly, an outstream video ad marketplace, in exchange of 6.91% of Tremor Video stock. On July 31, 2020, James Murdoch resigned from the News Corp

board of directors A board of directors (commonly referred simply as the board) is an executive committee that jointly supervises the activities of an organization, which can be either a for-profit or a nonprofit organization such as a business, nonprofit organiz ...

, "due to disagreements over certain editorial content published by the Company's news outlets and certain other strategic decisions." On February 4, 2022, News Corp suffered a cyberattack from hackers believed to be linked to China.

Potential re-merger with Fox Corporation

In October 14, 2022, it was announced that, under the instruction of Rupert Murdoch, a special committee had been established to explore a potential merger of Fox and News Corp, bringing the two companies back together after the former 21st Century Fox was spun-off from News Corp in 2013.

Assets

The company consists of the former News Corp's newspaper and book publishing assets, together with the digital real estate advertising properties that are now its largest business and includes: * News UK, a British newspaper publisher (includes subsidiary News Ireland), and owners of radio broadcaster Wireless Group. *

, a New York City-based financial publisher, and owner of the '' Wall Street Journal'', ''

MarketWatch MarketWatch is a website that provides financial information, business news, analysis, and stock market data. Along with ''The Wall Street Journal'' and ''Barron's'', it is a subsidiary of Dow Jones & Company, a property of News Corp. Histor ...

'' and '' Barron's'' *

, an Australian newspaper and magazine publisher, owns 65% of pay-TV provider

Foxtel Foxtel is an Australian pay television company—operating in cable television, direct broadcast satellite television, and IPTV streaming services. It was formed in April 2018, superseding an earlier company from 1995. The service was establi ...

(which owns Fox Sports Australia) and REA Group *'' New York Post'', a daily newspaper in New York City acquired by Rupert Murdoch in 1976. * HarperCollins, a major book trade publisher *

Tremor International Tremor International Ltd., comprising Tremor Video and Unruly, is a publicly traded advertising-technology company. Founded in 2007, it focuses on digital advertising including video, mobile, native, display technology, and connected TV. Its sto ...

, a video advertising platform (6.91%).

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:News Corp (2013-present) 2013 establishments in New York City Mass media companies of the United States Publishing companies of the United States Companies based in Manhattan Conglomerate companies of the United States Mass media companies based in New York City Multinational companies based in New York City Publishing companies based in New York City Conglomerate companies established in 2013 Mass media companies established in 2013 Publishing companies established in 2013 American companies established in 2013 Companies listed on the Nasdaq Publicly traded companies based in New York City Newspaper companies of the United States Corporate spin-offs Re-established companies