Life has its little ups and downs – minus-one per cent in Australia and plus five in the UK – but Rupert Murdoch’s commitment to newsmedia is still looking good with NewsCorp calling 2021 its “most profitable”.

While revenues grew only five per cent overall – from US$9.01 billion to $9.36 billion – growth in the media giant’s fourth quarter was 30 per cent, chief executive Robert Thomson has revealed.

For the year, profitability was up 26 per cent, thanks to growth in digital subscriptions, with the improvement in net income to US$389 million a dramatic improvement on last year’s $1.55 billion net loss which had been impacted by “non-cash impairment charges” of $1.69 billion.

Thomson (pictured) says the “intrinsic value” of News’ content has been amplified through landmark news payment agreements with major tech platforms. However, he said details of the multi-million dollar multi-year deals – signed with Facebook and Google during the financial year – were confidential.

“These deals will add revenue annually into nine figures and are a profoundly positive sign of the ongoing transformation of the news landscape,” he said.

Among subscription highlights has been a “two million milestone” for the streaming service of evolving pay-TV company Foxtel, which accounted for 40 per cent of total paid subscriber growth.

News media revenues however, were down… by 21 per cent or US$596 million, the offset again coming from circulation and subscriptions, which rose 11 per cent or US$104 million, partly due to foreign currency fluctuations. Digital revenues for the quarter at newspaper mastheads represented 30 per cent of combined revenues.

Thomson announced that subscriptions of its Australian mastheads had grown to 810,000 by June 30, compared to 647,600 last year. UK mastheads The Times and Sunday Times grew only from 336,000 to 367,000, and reach figures for popular tabloid The Sun were down to 124 million global monthly uniques from 133 million last year. The reach of the New York Post’s digital network also fell... to 123 million monthly uniques from 150 million.

A decline in advertising revenues – mainly related to News America Marketing and the “closure or transition to digital” of some of News’ Australian regional and community newspapers – exacerbated by COVID-19, was “partially offset” by a $68 million gain from foreign currency fluctuations and growth in digital advertising, “particularly at the New York Post”.

Other revenues decreased US$23 million, or eight per cent, compared to the prior year, primarily due to the sale of Unruly in January 2020. Book publishing and the real estate division also continued to deliver “strong results” for the business.

Thomson said the “strong record of cash generation” had given enhanced flexibility, and the ability to “opportunistically” take advantage of the required sale of OPIS, “which we believe will be transformative for the already successful Dow Jones Professional Information Business”.