Rupert Murdoch's News Corp has plunged into the red with a $US149 million loss, but the media giant has begun to feel the love from its acquisition of romance publisher Harlequin.
News Corp, which bought the world's biggest romance book publisher in 2014, increased earnings by 11 per cent to $US852 million ($A1.15 billion) in the year to June 30.
Group revenues rose by just one per cent to $US8.63 billion as the company's newspaper division suffered more advertising slides.
However a $US371 million writedown on a troubled digital education business in the US, Amplify, forced the group to a $US149 million net loss compared to a $US237 million profit in 2013/14.
News Corp's stable of newspapers, which include The Australian, The Times in Britain and The New York Post, suffered a seven per cent slide in revenues to $US5.7 billion, while earnings dropped nine per cent to $US603 million.
A 10 per cent slide in advertising revenues was driven by weakness in print ads and the weaker Australian dollar.
Chief financial officer Bedi Singh said advertising markets remained volatile at the start of fiscal 2016, with spending up in the US but soft in Australia and the UK.
Chief executive Robert Thomson said he hoped to see more stability this year driven by previous cost cuts, new products and increased penetration of digital subscribers.
But while the media giant's newspapers continue to struggle, its book publishing division is thriving.
Since adding Harlequin to HarperCollins in 2014, the division has lifted earnings 12 per cent to $US221 million and revenue by 16 per cent to $US1.667 billion.
Sales of Chris Kyle's American Sniper were strong following the release of the Oscar-winning hit film of the same name.
The division also expects a boost this financial year from the July release of Harper Lee's Go Set A Watchman, which sold a record number of copies in its first week of release in the US.
Its release had also revived sales of Lee's Pulitzer Prize winning novel To Kill A Mockingbird.
Elsewhere, News Corps' acquisition of US online real estate group Move Inc in 2014 helped lift revenues by 53 per cent at its digital real estate division, which also includes realestate.com owner REA Group.
However earnings fell six per cent.
The company said it is in advanced talks about selling its education software business Amplify, which it bought in 2010 in the hope it would take on the textbook industry.
But Amplify has reportedly suffered from a series of problems, including technical issues with its tablet computers, and sales have slowed.
NEWS CORP FEELS THE LOVE
* Net loss of $US149m, down from $US237m net profit in 2013/14
* Revenue up 1.0pct to $US8.57b
* Final dividend of 10 US cents, up from nil
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