News Corp Move Into Online Real Estate

As the decline in newspaper sales continues to affect media companies, they are beginning to seek new streams of revenue through online platforms.

News Corp has made an aggressive move to online platforms to combat the sliding revenue from the newspaper side of its business. An earlier Inquisitr story reported that the company had started charging for use of its news websites. Another way in which the company has been diversifying its revenue streams is through a number of acquisitions.

According to The Guardian, its latest acquisition is a $950 million purchase of Move.

Move, based in California, offers listings of sales and rental properties in the U.S., reaching about 35 million people per month on its sites, including Move.com. Move also owns ListHub, a digital platform that aggregates and syndicates multiple listing services’ data to more than 130 online publishers and reaching about 900 websites.

USA Today reported that REA Group, the operator of Australian residential property website Realestate.com.au will hold a 20 percent share in Move while News Corp will own the other 80 percent. Incidentally, News Corp is a majority shareholder in REA Group.

News Corp’s purchase of Move is the second largest acquisition in the online real estate market this year, according to The New York Post. The leader in the online real estate business, Zillow, purchased its competitior Trulia for $3.5 billion in July.

News Corp’s purchase of Move is a strategic undertaking for the company, according to CEO of News Corp Robert Thomson. “We intend to use our media platforms and compelling content to turbo-charge traffic growth and create the most successful real estate website in the U.S,” he said.

Thomson revealed that News Corp intends to make good use of its Move acquisition.

“The Move deal will accelerate News Corp’s digital and global expansion and contribute to the transformation of our company, making online real estate a powerful pillar of our portfolio. In addition to boosting Move’s subscription, advertising and software services, this acquisition will give News Corp a significant marketing platform for our media assets, which will benefit from the high-quality geographic data generated by real estate searches.”

The National Association of Realtors, the largest trade association of real estate agents and owner of multiple listing services, has an exclusive relationship with Move in listing its properties on Realtor.com. The association has given its consent to the acquisition, News Corp said.

News Corp’s purchase of Move will no doubt be a diversification strategy that many newspaper companies will model in a bid to secure their financial future.

[Photo Credit: Reuters]