News Corp chief operating officer Peter Chernin said: "We have certainly seen an uptick in most of our US advertising in the first quarter -- in local, national, cable, spot and syndication.
"But it is important to put this in perspective. It is really positive to see growth after so many months of consecutive falls but US advertising has not grown enough to make up for the downturn," he said.
Chernin said the company was exploring a number of ways to get its cash back from the crumbling German media giant Kirch Group. News Corp owns a 22% stake in Kirch's pay-TV unit Premiere, which is losing money.
News Corp has already written off £1bn against the stake but has said it is open to anything that would enable it to recover its investment in the business.
Meanwhile, Kirch Group is reported to have said that it may be forced to consider sacrificing its majority stake in Formula 1 motor racing rights company SLEC.
Dieter Hahn, second in command to Kirch chairman Leo Kirch, said he would like to find a partner to share the burden of the stake, but conceded it may have to sell out.
"We'd like to keep the Formula 1 stake and our preferred route would be to find a partner but it might have to be sold in the end."
Kirch's financial situation came to light at the end of last year, when a number of banks started calling in loans and News Corporation hinted that it might want to sell its stake back to Kirch, which the German group is contractually obliged to buy. Kirch is currently struggling under debts of €6.5bn (£4bn).
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