News Corp profit beats on digital real estate unit strength

(Reuters) - Wall Street Journal owner News Corp (NWSA.O) reported a better-than-expected quarterly profit on Thursday, driven by a tight control on expenses and growth in revenue across all its businesses.

News Corp said revenue in its rapidly growing digital real-estate unit, which includes REA Group Ltd (REA.AX), rose nearly 20 percent to $271 million.

Increased competition from digital media and a declining readership is driving print advertising down. Spending on print advertising in the U.S. is expected to fall 14 percent this year to about $18 billion, a third of what it was 10 years ago, according to media research firm Magna Intelligence.