Media mogul Mr Rupert Murdoch said today his group would take a $100 million advertising revenue hit as a result of the terrorists attacks on September 11th.
However, Mr Murdoch said his News Corp empire is better placed than rivals to withstand the tough economic environment in the wake of the attacks.
He told shareholders in News Corp's home town of Adelaide today he stood by the group's recently revised profit forecast and pointed to a slight pick-up in the gloomy advertising market.
"Revenue bookings in the past few weeks for both our TV stations and TV network have been stronger than over the past several months," Mr Murdoch told the group's annual general meeting.
But he warned conditions remained challenging, saying costs at the 24-hour Fox News channel had "blown right off budget".
Nonetheless, Mr Murdoch said the group was confident it could recoup a vast chunk of the initial losses and had taken a scalpel to its cost base.
The media mogul, now 70, quipped his health was "terrific" and he had no plans to step down.
News Corp - whose holdings include the Fox Television network, Sky Television, Twentieth Century Fox and a stable of newspapers and affiliated television stations - downgraded its earnings expectations for 2001/2002 earlier this month.
It now expects earnings growth in the high-single to low double-digits as advertising revenues slumped after the air attacks on New York and Washington.