News Corp Australia lost $60.7 million last year, but subscription revenue is growing

News Corp’s parent company, News Corporation, last week posted its first quarter results for fiscal year 2022, which prompted a 7 per cent bump in its share price. The results said News Corp Australia had grown its first quarter revenue by 14 per cent. The company now has 897,000 paying subscribers (850,000 of which are to the news mastheads).

In a further sign of its ambitions to grow the company through consumer contributions, News Corp is preparing to launch a sports-focused subscription website in an attempt to expand the way it covers key sporting events and Australian players.

The publisher is expected to launch the new platform, Code, by November 17 in what many believe to be a local version of closely watched international subscription website, The Athletic. It will be run by former Cricket Australia communications boss Alex Brown and will feature long-form journalism about sports such as rugby league, cricket and the AFL. It will also focus on Australians that play sport overseas.

Industry sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said Code will charge $10 per month for its content, which will feature coverage from Maria Recouvreur, former editor of the NRL’s magazine Big League, The Age’s Daniel Cherny and AAP’s Pam Whaley.

Journalists at other News Corp mastheads that report on sport at The Daily Telegraph and Brisbane’s Courier-Mail are not expected to be part of the platform. However, Code is expected to be cross-promoted with News Corp-controlled streaming service, Kayo Sports, which already has more than 1 million paying subscribers.