It’s not going so well for Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. Late last week the company announced it had a loss of $6.42 billion in the final three months of 2008.
Mediaweek reports Murdoch told analysts during News Corp.’s FY Q2 earnings call that the results “are a direct reflection of a recession that’s deeper than any one could have predicted.”
The loss of local advertising has been brutal: “The big thing that really is killing us is the lack of automobile advertising,” Murdoch said. “In local stations, automobile advertising was at least 30 percent of total revenue and there’s precious little of it around at the moment.”
Only the company’s cable networks unit, which includes FX, Fox News Channel, the regional sports nets and National Geographic Channel has seen a rise in operating income of 27% to $428 million.