News Corporation (NWS): 5 FORCES Analysis [Nov-2025 Updated]

You're assessing News Corporation's strategic position right now, and frankly, it's a classic pivot story playing out in real-time. While the legacy News Media segment faced a tough year with a 4% revenue decline in fiscal 2025, the high-margin engine-Digital Real Estate Services and Dow Jones' data-is clearly taking over, evidenced by professional information customers driving a 15% revenue surge last year. The core tension is whether this digital moat can withstand the intense competitive rivalry and the very real, high threat of generative AI substitutes scraping their IP. Below, I map out Michael Porter's five forces to show you exactly where the pressure points and the durable value lie for News Corporation as of late 2025.

News Corporation (NWS) - Porter's Five Forces: Bargaining power of suppliers

When looking at News Corporation's supplier landscape as of late 2025, you see a mix of high leverage points and areas where the company has successfully pushed back. The power dynamic isn't uniform; it shifts dramatically depending on what input you're talking about.

High power for premium content creators and authors due to unique intellectual property.

For News Corporation, especially within the Book Publishing segment housing HarperCollins, the creators-the authors-hold significant leverage. Their intellectual property (IP) is the core product, and while the book publishing market is only predicted to grow at a CAGR of about 1.15% from 2022 to 2028, the scarcity of top-tier, commercially viable talent keeps author power high. You can see this reflected in the segment's financial performance, where strong physical and digital book sales drove Book Publishing Segment EBITDA up 19% in Q2 FY25 [cite: 10 from first search]. The suppliers here are the talent, and their unique output dictates terms.

Increasing leverage for technology and AI platform providers essential for Dow Jones' data services.

Dow Jones is a powerhouse, reporting record full-year revenues of $2.33 billion in fiscal 2025, underpinned by its professional information business. This business relies heavily on sophisticated technology infrastructure and data platforms. As AI integration accelerates, the providers of the underlying cloud, data processing, and specialized software-especially those feeding the Risk & Compliance and Energy data services-gain leverage. Dow Jones segment revenues increased 6% to $586 million for the quarter ending September 30, 2025, showing the value of this data, but also the dependency on the tech stack that delivers it [cite: 3 from first search].

Low power for traditional newsprint and distribution suppliers following cost-saving initiatives.

News Corporation has actively worked to reduce the power of traditional commodity suppliers. This is evident in the financial results, where cost discipline has been a major driver of profitability. For fiscal 2025, Segment EBITDA (which includes News Media) increased $20 million, or 15%, driven by cost savings initiatives. Specifically, Q2 FY25 results pointed to lower newsprint, production, and distribution costs as a factor boosting Segment EBITDA [cite: 9 from first search]. This suggests News Corporation has successfully consolidated purchasing or shifted production methods, thereby lowering supplier leverage.

News Media Segment EBITDA rose 15% in FY2025 due in part to lower production costs.

The success in managing input costs is clear. For fiscal 2025, the Segment EBITDA related to the News Media operations saw a 15% increase, directly attributed to cost savings initiatives, such as the combination of News UK's printing operations with DMG Media. This 15% rise in Segment EBITDA contrasts with the overall Total Segment EBITDA growth of 14% to $1.42 billion for the full year. It shows that operational efficiencies, including lower production costs, were a more significant profit driver for this segment than revenue growth alone.

Content licensing deals with AI companies are a new, high-stakes negotiation point.

This is the newest and perhaps most volatile area of supplier/partner negotiation. News Corporation is employing a "woo and sue" strategy, actively negotiating licensing deals while pursuing legal action against unauthorized users [cite: 7, 8 from first search]. The first major deal with OpenAI, struck in May 2024, was reportedly worth $250 million over five years [cite: 7, 8, 11 from first search]. The stakes are massive, as digital revenues now comprise 62% of News Corp's total business as of Q1 FY26 (reporting on the period ending September 30, 2025) [cite: 3 from first search]. The judicial precedent set by a $1.5 billion award against Anthropic for using copyrighted books provides News Corporation with substantial leverage in these high-stakes licensing talks [cite: 3 from first search].

Here is a summary of the key financial context influencing these supplier dynamics:

The bargaining power of suppliers can be summarized by the following factors:

• Unique IP from premium authors creates high supplier leverage.
• Technology providers for Dow Jones data services hold increasing power.
• Cost-saving initiatives have successfully reduced newsprint supplier power.
• AI licensing deals represent a new, high-value negotiation arena.
• Judicial support for content owners (e.g., Anthropic award) strengthens publisher negotiation.

Finance: finalize the Q1 FY26 cash flow projection incorporating AI licensing revenue by next Tuesday.

News Corporation (NWS) - Porter's Five Forces: Bargaining power of customers

You're analyzing News Corporation's customer power, and the picture is definitely mixed, showing strong lock-in for some segments but clear vulnerability in others. Honestly, the power dynamic shifts dramatically depending on which customer group you are looking at.

Subscription Stickiness vs. Advertising Volatility

For the premium, professional-grade content, customer power is decidedly low. This is because the high-value digital subscriptions are sticky. For instance, Dow Jones digital-only subscriptions for The Wall Street Journal grew to nearly 3.8 million average subscriptions in the second quarter of fiscal 2025. This commitment to paid content insulates a core revenue stream from the broader volatility seen elsewhere.

Conversely, the power held by customers in the advertising market-especially those who buy inventory based on reach-is significant, though News Corporation is actively shifting away from this dependency. The reliance on advertising revenue has decreased, with advertising revenue declining by $9 million, or 2%, for the full fiscal year 2025, relative to fiscal 2024. Still, digital advertising made up 65% of total advertising revenues for the year, showing where the remaining ad spend is concentrated.

The bargaining power of major digital platforms like Google and Meta is high, as evidenced by the direct impact their algorithm changes have on News Corporation's traffic and, subsequently, its advertising revenue. We saw this pressure clearly in the News Media segment, with digital advertising revenues at News UK declining due to traffic drops. Here are some concrete examples of that traffic erosion:

• The Sun global unique users fell from 126 million (March 2024) to 74 million (March 2025).
• The New York Post unique users fell from 125 million to 85 million (March 2025).

Professional Information Customers: High Retention

Customers in the professional information space, particularly within Dow Jones Risk & Compliance, show very low bargaining power due to the mission-critical nature of the data. These customers are sticky, meaning they are difficult and costly to switch away from. This stickiness drove a substantial revenue surge for the segment.

Here is a look at the financial strength of this customer group:

The professional information business revenues overall grew by 7% for the full fiscal year 2025. This segment's performance contrasts sharply with the broader advertising market.

Digital Real Estate Services: Macro Sensitivity

For the Digital Real Estate Services segment, customer power is moderate and highly sensitive to external economic factors, specifically interest rates, which affect transaction volumes. While the Australian business, REA Group, demonstrated strong pricing power, the US operation, Move Inc. (which operates Realtor.com), showed sensitivity.

For the full fiscal year 2025, REA Group posted record revenues of $1.25 billion, a 12% increase year-over-year, driven by strong Australian residential performance. However, in the first quarter of fiscal 2025, Move Inc.'s revenues were $140 million, representing a 2% decrease year-over-year, with real estate revenue lagging at a 4% decrease. Lead volume, a key indicator of customer activity, was down 1% year-over-year for Move Inc. in that quarter, reflecting the depressed market conditions tied to mortgage rates.

Finance: draft 13-week cash view by Friday.

News Corporation (NWS) - Porter's Five Forces: Competitive rivalry

You're looking at News Corporation's competitive intensity right now, and it's a mixed bag, honestly. The rivalry is sharpest where the legacy business is shrinking and where the digital future is being fought over, but there are pockets, like in Australia, where News Corporation's position is incredibly strong.

The traditional media landscape is definitely seeing the most pressure. The rivalry here is intense, forcing News Corporation to rely on cost discipline to offset revenue erosion. For the full fiscal year 2025, the News Media division saw its revenue decline by 4% year-on-year. This decline was primarily due to lower advertising and circulation, despite digital revenues growing to account for 38% of that segment's revenue in the fourth quarter ending June 30, 2025. Still, the overall company revenue managed a 2% increase, hitting $8.45 billion for fiscal 2025, because the digital segments are pulling their weight.

The battle in US digital real estate is a heavyweight fight. News Corporation's Move, Inc., which operates Realtor.com, is in direct, high-stakes competition with major national portals. CoStar Group, with its Homes.com push, is spending heavily, even running Super Bowl adverts for the second year running. The rivalry has spilled into the courts; CoStar Group announced in April 2025 that it prevailed in a trade secrets lawsuit against Move, Inc. Furthermore, Zillow Group, Inc. is actively competing, having recently allied with Redfin to take on CoStar's rentals marketplace, Apartments.com. This shows the rivalry is not just about market share but also about legal and product innovation.

To be fair, not every market looks like a brawl. In the Australian real estate market, REA Group, majority-owned by News Corporation, maintains a dominant position. This is where you see the high-margin potential of a leading digital platform. For fiscal 2025, REA Group's Australian revenue climbed 14% to $1.544 billion AUD. Globally, REA Group's revenues reached $1.25 billion USD, marking a 12% increase year-on-year. The segment's profitability reflects this strength, with EBITDA (excluding associates) reaching $969m AUD, an 18% increase.

The professional information business under Dow Jones faces a different kind of rivalry: the existential threat from generative Artificial Intelligence. CEO Robert Thomson publicly warned that AI engines are 'cannibalising' intellectual property, which undermines future sales of content. Competitors here include established players like Reuters News and RELX, but the emerging threat is from AI aggregators. Dow Jones is actively responding by expanding its own data services, with its Factiva AI marketplace growing rapidly to nearly 5,000 publishing partners by early 2025. This shift underscores the broader trend.

The core of the competitive shift is clear: the fight is moving away from traditional print circulation and advertising dollars toward digital subscriptions and data licensing. The growth pillars for News Corporation are now the Digital Real Estate Services, Dow Jones, and Book Publishing segments. This means rivalry is increasingly defined by the ability to secure and monetize digital audiences and proprietary data sets, rather than just print readership numbers.

Here is a quick look at how the key segments stack up in terms of competitive pressure and financial contribution for fiscal 2025:

The competitive pressures News Corporation faces can be summarized by the shifting focus areas:

• Print advertising revenue continues to decline, pressuring the legacy business.
• US digital real estate competition involves costly marketing and legal challenges.
• Dow Jones must defend its premium data against AI scrapers and aggregators.
• Digital subscription growth is essential to offset traditional media revenue drops.
• REA Group's Australian market strength provides a high-margin counterweight.

Finance: draft 13-week cash view by Friday.

News Corporation (NWS) - Porter's Five Forces: Threat of substitutes

You're analyzing News Corporation's competitive position as of late 2025, and the threat of substitutes is definitely a major headwind you need to account for. This force is about alternatives that satisfy the same customer need-in this case, information, entertainment, and professional data-but through a different product or service. For News Corporation, this threat is arguably the most potent of the five forces right now.

The threat from generative AI models that scrape content for Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) is very high. News Corp CEO Robert Thomson highlighted this by noting the lawsuit against Perplexity AI, which claimed the startup illegally ripped off a "massive amount" of their reporting in Q1 FY2025. Public perception reflects this pressure: across surveyed countries in 2025, 51% of respondents believe generative AI is used 'always or often' in news media. The potential traffic destruction is stark; one analysis claimed a site previously ranked first could lose about 79% of its traffic for a query if the result appears below an AI overview.

Free news and social media platforms are a massive substitute, constantly fighting for your daily media time. In the US, for the first time, social media and video networks are the top source for news access at 54%, overtaking TV news at 50% and news websites/apps at 48%. Globally, the average person spends 2 hours and 24 minutes on social media every day. US consumers are competing for an average of six hours of daily media and entertainment time per person, and social platforms are capturing a huge piece of that pie.

User-generated content (UGC) and independent creators are increasingly substituting for traditional news and entertainment offerings. This is especially true with younger demographics. 56% of Gen Zs surveyed report that social media content is more relevant to them than traditional TV shows and movies. Furthermore, 46% of Americans say they watch more UGC on social media than they watch movies and television on streaming services.

For the professional information side of the business, alternative digital platforms compete directly with Dow Jones. While Dow Jones showed resilience, with its professional information business sales up 8% annually in Q1 FY2025, and Risk & Compliance revenue up 16% year-over-year in Q1 FY2026, platforms like LinkedIn still command user attention. Professionals spend an average of 8 minutes per day on LinkedIn. It's a constant battle to prove the premium value of curated, trusted data over free or lower-cost alternatives.

In Book Publishing, digital substitutes like downloadable audiobooks are certainly growing, but HarperCollins is still seeing digital revenue gains. For the full fiscal 2025 year, HarperCollins digital sales increased 5%, making up 24% of Consumer revenues, up from 23% the prior year. This growth was driven by higher audiobook sales, including contributions from Spotify. However, the segment is still navigating a challenging environment, as evidenced by the Q1 FY2026 results showing a 2% decline in quarterly revenue for Book Publishing.

Here's a quick look at how some of these substitute channels are capturing attention compared to News Corporation's core digital properties:

The sheer volume of time dedicated to these substitutes shows the scale of the challenge you face in monetizing News Corporation's intellectual property. You need to keep pushing the value proposition of your premium content.

• Dow Jones professional information revenue growth (Q1 FY2026): 6%.
• Dow Jones Risk & Compliance revenue growth (Q1 FY2026): 16%.
• Dow Jones digital revenues as a percentage of total (Q1 FY2026): 82%.
• US Media/Entertainment Time Competing For: Six hours daily per person.
• Gen Z Daily Social Media Time: 4 hours.
• HarperCollins Q1 FY2025 Digital Sales Growth: 15%.

Finance: draft 13-week cash view by Friday.

News Corporation (NWS) - Porter's Five Forces: Threat of new entrants

You're looking at the barriers for a new player trying to break into the media and information space News Corporation occupies. Honestly, the landscape is a mixed bag of low-hanging fruit and concrete walls.

The digital age definitely lowered the floor for content creation. Anyone with a laptop can start a blog or a TikTok channel. But that's not where News Corporation makes its real money. Establishing a trusted, global news brand like The Wall Street Journal, which is part of the Dow Jones segment that pulled in record revenues of $2.33 billion in Fiscal 2025, that's a different story. Trust takes decades, and that brand equity is a massive, intangible barrier to entry that a startup simply cannot replicate overnight.

Where the capital requirement really bites is in building network effects, especially in areas like digital real estate. Look at REA Group, News Corporation's majority-owned subsidiary. Its flagship platform, realestate.com.au, captures over 60% of the Australian online real estate advertising market. To challenge that dominance, a new entrant would need to pour capital into matching that scale, which is huge. As of November 25, 2025, REA Group's market cap stood at $17.2 billion, and its core Australian revenue alone hit $1,544 million in FY25. That kind of established liquidity and scale is tough to match.

New entrants are certainly emerging in the professional information space, often by leveraging new AI technologies. This is a key area of competition for Dow Jones, whose professional information business saw Risk & Compliance revenue grow 15% to $337 million in Fiscal 2025. A new AI-native competitor could try to undercut on price or offer novel data aggregation, but they face the established quality and integration of News Corporation's offerings.

Still, the regulatory and legal environment is creating a defintely high barrier, particularly around intellectual property. News Corporation is actively using litigation and licensing to control its content. We saw News Corp and Dow Jones sue Perplexity AI in October 2024 over scraping. While News Corp and Brave Software dismissed their suit in June 2025 without prejudice, the CEO has been clear about pursuing others relentlessly. The industry is watching settlements, like Anthropic's $1.5 billion agreement to compensate authors, as a benchmark for the cost of using copyrighted material to train large language models. News Corporation also secured a multi-year licensing deal with OpenAI, showing a path to monetization that new entrants might struggle to navigate without similar pre-existing leverage.

The strategic divestiture of non-core, capital-intensive assets also raises the bar for any media entrant wanting to compete across the board. The sale of Foxtel to DAZN was agreed upon at an enterprise value of A$3.4 billion, which saw News Corporation receive repayment of its shareholder loan of A$578 million in cash. This move signals a focus on high-margin core assets-like the Digital Real Estate Services segment, which posted revenues of $1.25 billion in FY25-over legacy, capital-heavy operations. A new entrant would need to fund a diversified portfolio from scratch, or acquire one at a significant premium.

Here's a quick look at the scale of the core segments a new entrant is up against, based on Fiscal 2025 full-year numbers:

The high cost of building a dominant platform like REA Group, which recently spent $55 million to acquire a 61.5% stake in iGUIDE (a company with FY25 revenue of about $21 million), shows the capital intensity required to acquire cutting-edge technology and market position. New entrants must either have deep pockets or a highly disruptive, low-cost model that bypasses the need for massive infrastructure investment.

• Low-cost content creation is easy; building trust is not.
• REA Group's market dominance requires high capital outlay.
• AI entrants face high legal costs for IP usage.
• REA India holds 40% app download share in its market.
• News Corporation is actively monetizing IP via licensing deals.

Finance: draft 13-week cash view by Friday.