News Corp's AI Deals and Subscription Shift: What Sales Teams Can Use Right Now
News Corp posted Q1 fiscal 2026 revenue of $2.14B (+2%) and Total Segment EBITDA of $340M (+5%). The company is leaning hard into AI content licensing and has accelerated share repurchases to 4x last year's pace.
Digital is now 62% of total revenue, nearly double the 32% share from 2018. Advertising's slice has fallen from 32% in 2018 to 16% in 2025-proof that recurring, direct customer revenue is the center of gravity.
Why this matters if you're in Sales
- Budgets are moving to data, subscriptions, and paid access, not broad ad buys.
- Buyers value premium content packaged with compliance, risk data, and APIs-sell outcomes, not inventory.
- Legal clarity around AI usage is giving publishers leverage; expect more paid licensing deals and fewer "free rides."
AI Content Licensing: "Wooing and Suing"
News Corp expects more AI partnerships after its agreement with OpenAI, while pursuing legal action against unauthorized use. As CEO Robert Thomson put it: "Information and sophisticated data are the essence of AI… Electricity without alacrity, buildings without billings, chips without chops."
The company views recent rulings-like a $1.5B award against Anthropic for copyrighted books-as a signal that "content crime does not and will not pay." Translation for sales: pricing power for licensed data is improving, and enterprise buyers will pay to stay compliant.
- Position your offer around risk reduction and clean licensing, not just features.
- Bundle content + usage rights + support to justify multi-year contracts.
Meanwhile, Google's ad business is concentrating on owned properties, with Network revenue down 1% to $7.4B in Q2 2025. That squeezes third-party publishers and makes direct licensing and subscriptions even more important. For context, see Alphabet's investor updates here.
Dow Jones: Professional Information Is the Growth Engine
Dow Jones posted $586M revenue (+6%) for the quarter, driven by its professional information businesses. Risk & Compliance grew 16% to $94M, with stronger demand for risk feeds and API solutions. Dow Jones Energy rose 7% to $73M, and the EcoMovement acquisition adds data on nearly 2 million EV charging connectors across 80+ countries.
Digital circulation is 75% of circulation revenue. Total consumer subscriptions reached 6.4M (+8%), with digital-only at ~5.9M (+10%). The Wall Street Journal's digital-only subs hit 4.2M (+11%), now 91% of WSJ subs. Pricing moved up for new customers and select tenured subscribers.
Advertising was steady at $85M, with digital at 68% of the mix. Segment EBITDA hit $144M (+10%), margins near 25%, despite higher people and marketing costs.
Sales takeaways from Dow Jones
- Proof that premium content + specialized data + APIs supports higher ARPU and sticky contracts.
- Digital pricing strength: test value-based tiers and usage-based add-ons.
- Lead with compliance, market-moving data, and workflow integration-less pitch, more ROI.
Explore Dow Jones' business lines for context on solutions buyers pay for here.
Digital Real Estate: Signs of a Turn
Digital Real Estate Services revenue reached $479M (+5%), with EBITDA at $158M (+13%). REA Group benefited from the absence of prior-year deal costs, while Move (Realtor.com) posted $152M (+9%), its fourth straight growth quarter and fastest in nearly four years.
Lower interest rates are nudging buyers and sellers back into the market. For sales teams in real estate or adjacent sectors, this suggests healthier lead flow, better advertiser confidence, and room for performance-based packaging.
Sales moves to make now
- Pitch clean data and compliance as premium features in AI-related deals-bake it into pricing.
- Reframe media packages around first-party data, subscriber access, and conversion outcomes.
- For B2B info sellers: productize APIs, alerts, and dashboards; gate the data, not just the articles.
- Use rate cards that scale with usage (seats, API calls, data depth) to grow accounts without discounting.
- In real estate, align offers with rate cycles; bundle lead gen with verified intent signals and SLA-backed follow-up.
Key Numbers (Quick Scan)
- Total revenue: $2.14B (+2%)
- Total Segment EBITDA: $340M (+5%)
- Buybacks: accelerated to 4x last year's pace
- Digital revenue share: 62% (vs. 32% in 2018)
- Ad revenue share: 16% (vs. 32% in 2018)
- Dow Jones + Digital Real Estate: 49% of revenue, 84% of EBITDA (FY25)
- Dow Jones subscriptions: 6.4M total, ~5.9M digital-only
- WSJ digital-only: 4.2M (91% of total WSJ subs)
Bottom Line for Sales
Money is flowing to trusted data, paid access, and enforceable licenses. If you sell media, data, or SaaS, the play is clear: package outcomes, protect the content, and price for usage and compliance.
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