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At News Corp., home of HarperCollins, revenues in the third quarter ended March 31 rose 9%, to $2.19 billion, and net income rose 13%, to $121 million.
The company said that book publishing revenue grew 8%, or by $41 million, to $555 million, in the quarter, "led by strong sales of Rachel Reid's Game Changers related to the release of the Heated Rivalry streaming series." Results were also helped by "a $6 million impact from recent acquisitions," as well as a $7 million gain because of favorable foreign currency rates.
Physical and digital sales both grew. Digital sales--including e-book and audiobooks sales--rose 11% and represented 26% of consumer revenues, up from 25% in the same period a year earlier. Backlist sales represented 64% of consumer revenues, down from 65% in the same period a year earlier.
Incidentally, in commentary on the current plague of AI-related phishing scams and thefts of copyrighted material, News Corp. noted in unusually colorful language for an earnings release: "We are also tracking a number of dodgy digital firms scraping illicitly, illegally our precious content and shamelessly reselling this purloined property. We have these baleful bad-boy bots in our sights and intend to pursue them vigorously. And we believe companies that willingly buy this stolen content from these nefarious fences are also culpable."