Background: News Corp's origins began in Australia back in 1952 and has since grown into a global media and publishing heavyweight. It owns major international assets like The Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones and book publisher HarperCollins. While in Australia it owns The Australian, Sky News Australia, dozens of regional papers, and a 61% stake in REA Group.

What happened: After a pretty tough decade for traditional media, the company says momentum is finally swinging back its way. According to CEO Robert Thomson, News Corp is on track to deliver record profits this financial year. Here's what changed:

• It sold Foxtel to DAZN for around $3 billion in December 2024 (of which it owned ~65% stake)
• It stripped out more than $160 million USD in costs in recent years
• It made a $250 million USD content deal with OpenAI

What else: News Corp now sees itself as an "input" company in the AI economy. Through long-term licensing deals, like its agreement with OpenAI, News Corp is positioning itself less as traditional media... and more as data infrastructure with recurring AI-linked revenue.  

What's the key learning?

💡An input company is one that provides essential ingredients that other businesses rely on. Think: semiconductors for chipmakers, energy for data centres or raw materials for manufacturers.

💡In the AI economy, high-quality data is one of those core ingredients... and News Corp is positioning its journalism, books and property listings as raw materials that AI systems need to function effectively.  By framing itself as an AI input provider, News Corp is shifting the narrative from "legacy media" to "data supplier".

💡News Corp is using its $250 million USD deal with OpenAI as a way to re-shape its story (and hopefully valuation). Instead of being priced purely as a cyclical media business, News Corp edges closer to the AI value chain where recurring, infrastructure-like revenue can get stronger investor multiples.