The election cycle has proven a gold mine for the Murdoch family empire in many ways, with Fox News ratings through the roof and record political revenue in the first quarter, according to Lachlan Murdoch earlier this week.

But it’s the book publishing business, HarperCollins, that has continued to be a surprise beneficiary.

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Vice president-elect J.D. Vance’s memoir Hillbilly Elegy again delivered for News Corp, selling 1.5 million units across the three months from July to September in the lead-up to Tuesday’s vote, the company reported on Friday morning.

The memoir, alongside “robust Bible sales during a time of acute political uncertainty and intense global conflict” helped the HarperCollins business jump 25 per cent in profitability, global chief executive Robert Thomson told investors.

Thomson praised the company’s news output during the cycle, which included a Trump endorsement from The New York Post, while the Wall Street Journal continued its near-century-long tradition of not backing a party.

Closer to home, it wasn’t hard to tell which side Sky News was backing.

“The just completed election has highlighted the importance of trusted journalism in a media maelstrom in which some journalists routinely mistake virtue signalling for virtue,” Thomson said.