News Corp posts $254m profit on the strength of film business

News Corp's CEO, Rupert Murdoch, announced that he is moving closer to charging for all of his company's newspaper websites.

Rupert Murdoch spoke yesterday and told sources that Ereaders and smartphones would be basically useless because they will not have quality creative content. He made the statement just as his company is moving closer to get consumers to pay for journalism and entertainment. News Corp enjoyed a boost in profit thanks to its popularity of the Fox television network and from Hollywood film-making success. The company cleared more than $250m in profit from September to December, which is much better that a year ago when the company loss $6.4bn after huge asset write downs. Murdoch announced that he is very close now to charging access to all of his company’s newspaper sites, which include The Times, the Sun and the News of the World. Murdoch is also in talks with manufacturers of handheld devices about allowing consumers to have access to media content whenever they want as long as they pay a subscription fee. Murdoch said "Content is not just king, it is the emperor of all things digital, We're on the cusp of a digital revolution from which our shareholders will profit handsomely." In a reference to hyped technology such as Apple's iPad and Amazon's Kindle, ingenious and fabulous devices would be "unloved and unsold" without creativity from companies such as his own, adding that they were powered by content – not by batteries.” Murdoch said that consumers want to be entertained and informed and they are willing too pay for it. He also said that they want to be able to get content on a variety of devices. Alan Rusbridger is the Guardian’s editor and in recent speech he said that newspapers were asking for trouble if they charge for access to content. Murdoch was asked about the speech that Rusbridger made and he said that the remarks made in the speech were ridicules. Even though News Corp made huge profits they were hit by a one-time charge of $500 million by a US firm, Valassis Communications, who sued News Corp because of what they say was anti-competitive behavior on News Corp’s part. News Corp was accused of being too aggressive using discount coupons for marketing. News Corp’s company Twentieth Century Fox film studio saw profits of more than $324 million which was largely due to James Cameron’s Avatar and DVD releases such as Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs and Night at the Museum. Murdoch said that he is already in talks about making a sequel but added that people should not hold their breathe on the timing.