News Corp is the largest commercial news organisation in Australia. Its mastheads include news.com.au, the Herald Sun, The Daily Telegraph, The Australian and The Courier-Mail. Industry audience data shows that News Corp Australia held the number one news publisher position for every month of 2025, according to Ipsos iris rankings. In a recent month, its network reached 16.6 million Australian adults, or 78.1% of those aged 18 and over. adnewsmediaweek
That reach brings enormous power. News Corp does more than report the news. It decides what makes the front page, which issues dominate the week and how they are framed. All too often, it goes further and tells us what to think.
Its mastheads are rarely short of advice for us – dvice about our values, how the country should be run and about who is doing the right thing.
So it is fair to ask what News Corp contributes in return. In my opinion, the company does not make a contribution to match its voice.
Australian Taxation Office corporate tax data released this week gives the answer. In 2024-25, News Australia Holdings Pty Limited, the Australian holding company of the Murdoch family’s News Corp, reported total income of $1.89 billion and taxable income of $310 million. Its tax payable was nil.
It is the tenth year in a row the company has paid no tax here.
News Corp is a foreign company, incorporated in the United States. I am not suggesting it has broken the law. Losses carried forward and tax offsets can legally reduce a tax bill to zero. But paying nothing year after year is a choice. It is a striking choice for an organisation that spends so much time telling Australians how to behave.
GST does not change the picture. News Corp collects it, but customers pay it.
Small businesses in Australia, like newsagents, no front page to set the national agenda, and no global structure to move profits through.
Influence brings responsibility. The organisation with the loudest voice in Australian news should be willing to pay its share for the country it speaks to every day.
Until it does, readers are entitled to weigh its lectures with that in mind.
And, look, while you’re here, newsagents are treated poorly by News in my opinion, making around 12% from each newspaper sold from which we pay payments processing costs, labour, rent, product theft and all the usual business overheads.