News Corp, one of the world's largest media companies, reported its financial results for the year ending June 2026 on August 5. The company brought in $9.03 billion in revenue, up 7% from the previous year, and its profit rose 15% to $743 million (News Corp). But the headline number was not the only thing people noticed. CEO Robert Thomson used the announcement to launch a fierce attack on AI companies he says are stealing News Corp's journalism.

Thomson accused AI models of stealing News Corp's work to build their products without paying for it. He warned that without real journalism, "users would be drowning in a slimy sea of AI slop" (The Guardian). He called the AI firms involved "crass kleptomaniacs" — meaning crude thieves — and went further, saying that any company buying services from these AI firms is "patently in possession of stolen goods." Think of it like a fencing operation: if someone sells you a discounted TV and you suspect it was stolen, you could be in trouble too.

Here is the twist: News Corp already has deals with some AI companies, including OpenAI and Meta (The Guardian). So Thomson is not against all AI firms — just the ones that have not paid for a license. If you pay, you are a partner. If you do not, you are a thief, according to his framing. By calling out the customers of unlicensed AI firms, not just the firms themselves, he is trying to make businesses nervous about using AI tools built on content they did not pay for.

Australian digital subscriptions edge down

News Corp owns several major Australian newspapers, including the Australian, the Daily Telegraph, and the Herald Sun. The number of people paying for digital subscriptions to these papers fell from 1,166,000 to 1,162,000 over the financial year ending June 30, 2026 (The Guardian). That is a drop of 4,000 subscribers — small in number, but it reverses growth seen earlier in the year. Back in March, the company had reported 1,171,000 digital subscribers, up from 1,148,000 a year earlier (News Corp Investor Relations). That means the fourth quarter wiped out gains made in the first nine months.

Broader news media unit: mixed signals and new costs

News Corp's wider news media division includes big names like the Sun and the Times in London and the New York Post. The division had a mixed year. Advertising revenue fell 2% (The Guardian). On top of that, the division spent money launching the California Post, a new Los Angeles-based outlet run by editor Nick Papps as an offshoot of the New York Post. That startup cost added pressure to a division already dealing with a shrinking ad market.

The regulatory backdrop in Australia

The results came out as the Albanese government in Australia pushes back against plans to expand something called the news bargaining incentive (The Guardian). This is a rule that would force big tech companies to pay media outlets for the news content that appears on their platforms — either by signing deals or by paying a government charge. The government's resistance to expanding this rule makes things harder for publishers like News Corp, which are trying several approaches at once: cutting licensing deals with AI firms, threatening lawsuits, and pushing for government regulation to get paid for their content.

Tracing the fiscal year arc

The full-year results cap a year of ups and downs. In the second quarter, revenues reached $2.36 billion, up 6% from $2.24 billion the year before (News Corp Investor Relations). Third-quarter profit was $121 million, up 13% from $107 million a year earlier (News Corp Investor Relations). For context, News Corp also beat expectations in the previous year's fourth quarter, helped by digital subscription growth (Reuters). The fiscal 2026 full-year numbers show continued growth in revenue and profit overall, but the Australian subscriber decline and the advertising dip suggest some parts of the business are weakening.

The broader context here is that strong overall numbers can hide problems in specific parts of a company. One year of flat or falling subscriptions does not break a business. But if a market that was supposed to be a growth engine starts shrinking for several quarters in a row, that is worth watching. The California Post launch adds more cost to a division already dealing with falling ad revenue, and the company has not said when that investment will pay off.

Thomson's choice to use the financial results as a stage for his AI attack is also a deliberate move. By pairing his complaint about AI theft with financial numbers that show his journalism businesses under pressure, he is tying the two stories together. His argument is that the subscription and advertising problems News Corp faces are connected to AI firms taking its content without paying. Whether regulators, courts, or corporate customers buy that argument will shape what happens next between publishers and AI companies.