Profit falls, sales rise at News Corp.

News Corp., the media company controlled by Rupert Murdoch, said Wednesday that first-quarter profit fell 13% from a year earlier, when the sale of investments boosted results.

Income dropped to $732 million, or 23 cents a share, from $843 million, or 27 cents, a year earlier, New York-based News Corp. said. Sales rose 19% to $7.07 billion, beating the $6.52-billion average of analysts’ estimates.

Receipts from “The Simpsons” movie helped boost studio profit 51%. Higher affiliate fees paid to the Fox News cable channel also contributed. Murdoch, who spearheaded News Corp.’s purchase of Dow Jones & Co. for $5.2 billion, is capitalizing on MySpace’s position as the world’s most popular social-networking website to generate advertising sales.