News Corp. writes down value of The Sun to zero

The Rupert Murdoch-controlled media company News Corp. has written down the value of its British newspaper The Sun to zero.

The company revealed the valuation in data filed with British government regulators Thursday and published Friday.

The value of The Sun’s publishing rights and titles as of June 2020 fell to zero from 112 million pounds the previous year.

A spokesperson for News Corp. declined to comment on the statements.

In addition, The Sun’s cash flow forecasts caused it to record an impairment, or permanent reduction in value, of 84 million pounds in 2020.

The Sun is one of several newspapers owned by News Corp. along with British papers The Times and U.S. papers The Wall Street Journal and the New York Post, as well as several Australian newspapers.

The Sun also faces potential costs relating to the phone hacking scandal of the mid-2000s in which journalists at the paper and another now-shuttered News Corp. tabloid were accused of illegally tapping phones and bribing police for information.

In the financial filings, News Corp. reported that it had set aside 52.3 million pounds to pay for legal costs surrounding the scandal.

Bloomberg, citing data from industry regulator Ofcom, reported that the once-dominant British newspaper was the 16th most popular source of news across all platforms last year in the United Kingdom.