News Corp hit by falling ad sales in first standalone results The company, which retained the News Corp name after it was divided from Mr Murdoch's film and television assets in June, saw revenues shrink to $2.07bn in the three months to the end of September. Analysts had been forecasting $2.18bn. The newspaper operation, which owns the Wall Street Journal in the US and a slew of major titles in Mr Murdoch's native Australia, was the worst performing division at the company. Its revenues slumped 10pc to $1.5bn. Robert Thomson, chief executive, blamed "headwinds in Australia, magnified by inauspicious foreign currency movement." However, the biggest underlying problem was a sharp decline in print advertising sales. Investors who hoped News Corp's split from the rest of Mr Murdoch's media empire would pave the way for greater transparency were disappointed. The company did not detail the performance of individual newspapers. News Corp, which also includes Harper Collins, the book publisher, was hived off after the fallout from the phone hacking and police bribery scandal threatened to engulf the rest of the old News Corp businesses. The much more profitable film and television division adopted the new name, 21stCentury Fox, although it has also got off to a difficult start. Its profits fell 44pc to $1.3bn at its inaugural results earlier this month.