Good news for Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation with the announcement that it has returned to profitability. But a closer examination of the numbers suggests there are some still some vulnerable spots.

As reported here, film was the big contributor to the results with News Corp reaping the profits from DVD releases like Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, X-Men Origins: Wolverine and Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian. Better still, the spectacular box office success of James Cameron's Avatar, which has now topped the box office at $30 million and is already the highest grossing picture of all time, will provide even bigger profits and boost the company's results in the third quarter. So Avatar has saved Murdoch. Is it any wonder that Murdoch, according to BusinessWeek, is pushing for a sequel.

The rest of the empire however has its issues, particularly newspapers. They were up 30% but that's only because of a strong Australian dollar, continuing savage cost-cutting, and some ad growth at The Wall Street Journal. As commentator Philip Stone says, UK newspaper revenues were flat, The Times is a big money loser. There are even claims that The Times and Sunday Times are up for sale.

And in the United States, Murdoch's New York Post is slipping again in its circulation war with the New York Daily News.

Which is why Murdoch is now pushing so hard for paid content. The question is whether readers will go along with it.