The research emphasizes on four representative listed press companies and their fnancial performances from 2012 to 2016. Different profit models are summarized by analyzing their weight changes of main operating profits. It shows that newspaper groups in China mainly rely on circulation and advertisement, but the share of their main business profits are on the decline. This makes the companies turn to various business and look for new profit growth points, such as game business, animation industry, ‘internet plus’, etc. Foreign press companies, however, represented by the New York Times Co., have been staying focused on circulation and advertisement, and developing new technologies such as VR to attract readers. This paper also sums up the development trends of listed press groups, and suggests that press companies should expand their business horizons to cultural industry, adhere to digital transformation of traditional media, and accelerate the development of digital products.