News Corp.'s Q2 earnings get low ratings

Adjusted operating income at most of News Corp.'s individual operating divisions took big dives during Q2, with television and filmed entertainment really taking it on the chin. The latter segment had to deal with tough comparisons and marketing costs for films such as The Day the Earth Stood Still, while the former division is suffering through the well-known disaster that is the advertising market.

The bright spot, however, to the News Corp. story is definitely its cable network programming segment, which actually went up 27% in terms of operating profit. Imagine how cable programming would have done had there not been a global financial debacle going on. Fox News Channel is, as usual, driving a lot of the success in this area (and, whether you love them or not, I guess you'll have to credit Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity with helping to power this very popular media asset).

News Corp.'s problems aren't going to go away so fast. In fact, the entire media sector will have to deal with a lot of issues for a long time. Earlier in the week, Disney reported a bad quarter, as did Time Warner. Looks like shareholders who invest in this sector may have to put up with declining sales, decreasing bottom lines, and lower cash flows for a while (for the past six months, by the way, News Corp. had to use cash for operating activities).

Shares of News Corp. were down in the after-hours session on Thursday by over 9% and they are down the same amount this morning in pre-market trading. It will be interesting to see if they go back to the 52-week low. I think they just might, so I wouldn't be interested in buying just yet, unless it was for capturing the inevitable after-the-sell-off bounce. I'll probably stay on the sidelines. And to Rupert Murdoch: You better be putting in overtime, pal, so you can get your media collection in better shape to fight the recession! You owe the shareholders that much...

Disclosure: I own Disney, GE; positions can change without notice.