News Corp gets boost from books, online services

Rupert Murdoch's News Corp on Wednesday reported higher profits and revenues, as gains from best-seller books and online services offset struggles at its newspaper operations.
The New York-based firm reported a net profit of $65 million, up from $27 million in the same period a year ago.
Total revenues edged up four percent to $2.15 billion.
Much of the gains came from its newly-acquired online real estate listings firm Move and the Harlequin book publishing operations.
Results from the newspaper division were weaker, but chief executive Robert Thomson said the company is seeing "tangible improvement in our newspaper business in Australia and circulation revenue gains at The Times (of London) and The Wall Street Journal."
News Corp retained the name of the media-entertainment conglomerate broken up last year as part of Murdoch's plan to "unlock value" for shareholders.
The other group created by the split, 21st Century Fox, earlier this week posted a quarterly profit of $1.04 billion on its operations, which include Fox television and Hollywood studios.
Murdoch and his family remain in control of both News Corp and 21st Century Fox.
Since the split, News Corp acquired Move for $950 million, picking up websites -- including realtor.com -- and its smartphone apps.
In May, the group snapped up Harlequin, the global queen of bodice-ripping books, for $414.5 million, merging it into its HarperCollins Publishers unit.
"Our digital offerings are expanding in reach and depth, while our global platform has been bolstered in books, online real estate and business information and analysis," Thomson said.
"The announced acquisition of Move will provide a new foundation for growth in digital real estate, and we will use our extensive resources at Dow Jones, News America Marketing and the New York Post to drive traffic and revenue in coming years."
News Corp owns newspapers in Britain, Australia and the United States, including The Wall Street Journal, The Times of London and the New York Post.
It also includes digital real estate services; book publishing; digital education and sports programming; and pay-TV distribution in Australia.