ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY - MORE GOOD NEWS FROM THE "CONGLOMS"

MORE GOOD NEWS FROM THE "CONGLOMS"

Media conglomerates News Corp and Time Warner each reported higher-than-expected quarterly results Wednesday, with their movie and cable businesses offsetting declines at their other -- mostly print -- businesses. Time Warner's Time Inc. unit, which publishes such magazines as Time, People , and Entertainment Weekly, took a particularly hard hit as advertisers retrenched and subscribers failed to renew. News Corp said that its newspapers, which include the New York Post and the Wall Street Journal in the U.S. and the Times in London, posted an 81-percent decline in operating income during the quarter from a year ago. Its MySpace website also performed poorly compared with rivals Facebook and Twitter. On the other hand, News Corp said that its 20th Century Fox film division saw its operating income grow to $391 million from $251 million a year ago. It credited much of that success to the performance of its animated Ice Age Dawn of the Dinosaurs , which became one of the all-time highest overseas moneymakers in history during the quarter. It also benefited from the home-video release of X-Men Origins Wolverine. As for Warner Bros, Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes remarked that the studio "is on pace to report its highest profits ever." (The studio's Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince alone earned $974.73 million worldwide this year.) Both companies also raised their forecasts for the coming year.

05/11/2009