News Q3 2025 Earnings Report

News EPS Results

• Actual EPS: $0.17
• Consensus EPS: $0.22
• Beat/Miss: Missed by -$0.05
• One Year Ago EPS: N/A

News Revenue Results

• Actual Revenue: $2.01 billion
• Expected Revenue: $2.00 billion
• Beat/Miss: Beat by +$6.72 million
• YoY Revenue Growth: N/A

News Announcement Details

• Quarter: Q3 2025
• Date: 5/8/2025
• Time: After Market Closes
• Conference Call Date: Thursday, May 8, 2025
• Conference Call Time: 5:00PM ET

News (NASDAQ:NWS), a media and information services company, creates and distributes authoritative and engaging content, and other products and services for consumers and businesses worldwide. It operates through six segments: Digital Real Estate Services, Subscription Video Services, Dow Jones, Book Publishing, News Media, and Other. The company distributes content and data products, including The Wall Street Journal, Barron's, MarketWatch, Investor's Business Daily, Factiva, Dow Jones Risk & Compliance, Dow Jones Newswires, and Dow Jones Energy through various media channels, such as newspapers, newswires, websites, mobile apps, newsletters, magazines, proprietary databases, live journalism, video, and podcasts. It also owns and operates Monday to Friday, Saturday and Sunday, weekly, and bi-weekly newspapers comprising The Australian, The Weekend Australian, The Daily Telegraph, The Sunday Telegraph, Herald Sun, Sunday Herald Sun, The Courier Mail, The Sunday Mail, The Advertiser, Sunday Mail, The Sun, The Sun on Sunday, The Times, The Sunday Times, and New York Post, as well as digital mastheads and other websites. In addition, the company publishes general fiction, nonfiction, children's, and religious books; provides sports, entertainment, and news services to pay-TV and streaming subscribers, and other commercial licensees through satellite and internet distribution; and broadcasts rights to live sporting events. Further, it offers property and property-related advertising and services on its websites and mobile applications; digital real estate services; and financial services. News Corporation was founded in 2012 and is headquartered in New York, New York.

News Q3 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

Key Takeaways

• News Corp reported a 67% increase in Q3 net income to $107 million and a 12% rise in total segment EBITDA to $290 million, driving margins up to 14.4% and adjusted EPS to $0.17.
• News Corp sold Foxtel to DAZN, removing $724 million in debt, repaying A$592 million in loans, and taking a 6% stake in DAZN as it prioritizes Dow Jones, digital real estate and book publishing.
• Dow Jones revenue grew 6% with profitability up 12% and margins rising to 23%, led by a 14% jump in digital circulation, over 6 million consumer subscriptions, and double-digit growth in risk & compliance and energy divisions.
• The Digital Real Estate segment saw a 5% rise in revenues and a 19% jump in EBITDA, with REA’s revenue up 6% (11% cc) and realtor.com revenues up 2% as new initiatives in rentals and sellers now account for 22% of its business.
• In Book Publishing, revenues rose 2% to $514 million and EBITDA grew 3% to $64 million, driven by backlist strength, a 3% increase in digital sales, growth in Christian publishing and audiobooks, and strategic acquisitions.

Presentation

[Operator]

Welcome to the News Corp's Third Quarter Fiscal twenty twenty five earnings conference call. Today's conference is being recorded. Media will be allowed on a listen only basis. At this time, I'd like to turn the conference over to Michael Floren, senior vice president and head of investor relations. Please go ahead.

[Michael Florin, Senior VP & Head of Investor Relations at News]

Thank you very much, operator. Hello, everyone, and welcome to News Corp's fiscal third quarter two thousand twenty five earnings call. We issued our earnings press release about thirty minutes ago, and it's now posted on our website at newscorp.com. On the call today are Robert Thompson, chief executive and Lavanya Chandrasekar, chief financial officer. We'll open some prepared remarks and we'll be happy to take questions from the investment community.

[Michael Florin, Senior VP & Head of Investor Relations at News]

This call may include certain forward looking information with respect to News Corp's business and strategy. Actual results could differ materially from what is said. News Corp's Form 10 ks and Form 10 Q filings identify risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ and contain cautionary statements regarding forward looking information. Additionally, this call will include certain non GAAP financial measurements such as total segment EBITDA, adjusted segment EBITDA and adjusted EPS. The definitions and GAAP to non GAAP reconciliations of such measures can be found in the earnings release for the applicable periods posted on our website.

[Michael Florin, Senior VP & Head of Investor Relations at News]

With that, I'll pass over to Robert Thompson for some opening comments.

[Robert Thomson, Chief Executive Officer at News]

Thank you, Mike. The sustained strength of News Corp's third quarter results reflects the company's strategic transformation. We have pursued digital growth, realigned our assets, focused relentlessly on cost discipline, and asserted the essential value of our intellectual property in a changing, challenging content world. These potent results come despite political turbulence that has clearly affected some of our business partners and undermined their ability to plan coherently. We firmly believe that this disruption is ephemeral and that The US has the potential for robust growth when the heavens return to equilibrium.

[Robert Thomson, Chief Executive Officer at News]

The administration's pursuit of sensible deregulation and a sound energy policy, combined with America's economic prowess and innate creativity, should surely produce favorable results. When Adam Smith spoke sagely of the power of the invisible hand, he did not envisage an economic slap in the face from the unruly introduction of exorbitant tariffs. America's animal spirits do need emancipation from the cage of uncertainty. As for our company, net income from continuing operations rose 67% to $107,000,000 in the third quarter compared to the prior year, while revenues were $2,000,000,000 ahead of the prior period by 1% despite blustery currency headwinds. Total segment EBITDA increased 12%, with the overall margin expanding from 13% to 14.4%.

[Robert Thomson, Chief Executive Officer at News]

Third quarter adjusted revenues were actually ahead by 2%, while adjusted total segment EBITDA expanded 15%. Our reported EPS from continuing operations doubled to 14¢, while our adjusted EPS was 17¢ compared to 13¢ a year ago. Following the close of the quarter, we concluded the sale of Foxtel to DAZN, highlighting our intention to concentrate investment on three core pillars of growth: Dow Jones, digital real estate and book publishing. The transaction saw the transfer of $724,000,000 US dollars of Foxtel debt off our balance sheet and the direct repayment of $592,000,000 Australian dollars in shareholder loans to News Corp. We also received an equity interest of approximately 6% in the fast growing DAZN, which is a world leader in sports streaming.

[Robert Thomson, Chief Executive Officer at News]

While music has Spotify, DAZN could well become Sportify. We are immensely proud of the Foxtel team and their transformation of the company in recent years, and are also proud to be a global partner of Dazone, which has much technological expertise and global reach. The transaction is expected to be earnings accretive and improve our return on invested capital. As we noted last quarter, Moody's and S and P have both upgraded the company to investment grade. And there is no doubt that the return of significant cash from the deal, combined with the strength of our free cash flow and expected lower capital intensity, has increased our optionality.

[Robert Thomson, Chief Executive Officer at News]

As demonstrated with the sale of Foxtel, we are continuously exploring structural options to maximise returns for our shareholders. The semipaternal importance of quality journalism cannot be underestimated in the midst of the current political maelstrom. It is imperative that journalists focus on facts, a task complicated by faux fact checking, at a time when even science, from climate to medicine, has become politicised and polarising, undermining the long term credibility of once trusted experts and institutions. The currency of credibility will become even more crucial as AI continues its exponential growth and inevitably blurs the lines between the actual and the anthropomorphic. We are pleased with our principal partnership with OpenAI and trust that other AI operators, strip mining our intellectual property, fully appreciate their responsibilities to our company, to creativity, and to the community.

[Robert Thomson, Chief Executive Officer at News]

Having recently visited China, it is obvious that America's comparative advantage is not in chips or compute power or data storage, but in creativity, in lateral thinking, and it would be shameful if big digital players undermined that source of strength by eviscerating IP rights. Patently, blatantly, we believe some AI companies are stealing content, so much so that they have no doubt ripped off even the president of The United States, Donald Trump, by ingesting books, including The Art of the Deal, and repurposing them for profit without his permission. And we expect the AI anarchists will surely have done the same with Truth Social, purloining content and data to fuel their economic engines. Returning to our results. Dow Jones was a highlight.

[Robert Thomson, Chief Executive Officer at News]

We foresaw an improvement in the quarter, and that expectation was definitely realized. Dow Jones posted a healthy 6% revenue growth, while profitability surged 12%, and the margin rose from 21.7 to 23%. There is still much toil ahead, as Elmar and the trusty team realize. But we saw digital circulation revenue expand 14%, the fastest growth rate in almost three years, and recorded improvement in digital ARPU year over year and quarter over quarter, while total consumer subscriptions surpassed the 6,000,000 milestone. Since our resegmentation in 2020, not only has Dow Jones profitability more than doubled, but total subscriptions have risen over 60%, with more than 90% now fully digital.

[Robert Thomson, Chief Executive Officer at News]

The rather active news cycle has unsurprisingly contributed to further increases in audience traffic and subscriptions in recent days. The professional information business at Dow Jones continued to thrive, posting an improved 6% revenue growth, driven by double digit expansion at both risk and compliance and Dow Jones Energy. Risk and compliance posted 11% revenue growth despite unfavorable currency volatility, as risks rose in the global economy and the need for compliance remained imperative for thoughtful companies in a fast changing regulatory environment. Significantly, we completed the acquisition of Oxford Analytica and Dragonfly Intelligence in the fourth quarter, which should enhance our ability to provide insight and intel to companies across the globe. Meanwhile, Dow Jones Energy posted 10% revenue growth as we invested in product offerings and built on unique pricing products and real time analysis.

[Robert Thomson, Chief Executive Officer at News]

One example was carbon and clean fuels analytics, which helps businesses, investors and traders capitalize on opportunities from energy transition at a time of pronounced regulatory upheaval. The Dow Jones team expects that Factiva, which has been an unfortunate drag on professional information revenues, should improve in coming quarters as we cycle past the unfavorable impact of a contentious client dispute. At Digital Real Estate Services, profitability surged 19% on a 5% increase in revenues. And, notably, margin improved from 26.8% to 30.5%. REA posted 6% revenue growth, or 11% on a constant currency basis, thanks to a 15% increase in yield compared to the same period last year.

[Robert Thomson, Chief Executive Officer at News]

REA maintained a rather healthy audience lead, with nearly four times as many average monthly visits as Domain and nearly five times the user engagement, as measured by independent metrics. At realtor.com, revenues rose 2% as growth initiatives across rental, seller and new homes flourished, accounting for 22% of total revenue, even though overall market conditions remain difficult because of elevated mortgage rates and economic instability. Damian Ewels and the realtor team thrive on competition and are gaining audience and user loyalty, pulling further ahead of Redfin and Homes.com, thanks to the network effect created by our media platforms. We believe that network advantage will become more pronounced as the character of search continues to change profoundly in coming years. Based on third party verified source Comscore, total visits to the site reached two thirty nine million in March, representing 29 of market share among the top real estate portals, and a 3.7 times traffic advantage over Homes.com and 2.7 times greater than Redfin, while our 4.5 visits per visitor is the category leader and a compelling sign of engagement and loyalty.

[Robert Thomson, Chief Executive Officer at News]

And let's be very clear, these are not home brewed metrics. In book publishing, in a relatively slow season, with Brian Murray's guidance, revenue expanded by 2% to $514,000,000 and EBITDA rose 3% to $64,000,000 thanks in large part to the recent acquisition of German book publisher Graefer and Unse. Additionally, digital revenues grew 3% as audiobooks continued to prosper, including contributions from our key partnership with Spotify. We saw strength from Gregory Maguire's latest addition to the Wicked Universe, Alfie, along with other standouts such as Tessa Bailey's Dream Girl drama and Alex Astor's Summer in the City. Our Christian divisions showed sustained strength, particularly in Bible sales.

[Robert Thomson, Chief Executive Officer at News]

And Bible Gateway, which we are developing as both a portal and a community, had 87,000,000 uniques during the quarter. We expect that burgeoning site will add to our network effect as a funnel for realtor.com and our media sites, which in turn will drive traffic to Bible Gateway. In the coming quarter, we are excited by the release of the paperback of Shelby Van Pelt's bestseller Remarkably Bright Creatures, along with On Democracies and Death Cults by Douglas Murray, I Wish Someone Had Told Me by Dana Perino, and Uptown Girl by Christie Brinkley. Harper Collins has acquired the North American rights to The Land of Stories and Essays by Harper Lee. The collection, set to publish in the first half of fiscal year twenty twenty six, will include several unseen short stories from the legendary author of To Kill a Mockingbird.

[Robert Thomson, Chief Executive Officer at News]

The news media segment posted healthy EBITDA growth of 22%, building on the 30% year on year growth reported last quarter as our partnerships with OpenAI and other principal digital platforms continue to benefit our mastheads, while the teams were diligent in their cost discipline. At News UK, under Rebecca Brooks' leadership, digital subscriptions to The Times and Sunday Times reached 629,000, rising 8% compared to prior year, and digital advertising revenue at The Times continued to expand. Meanwhile, we launched The Sun Club in February, which provides premium journalism and exclusive offers to members. At the New York Post, Our Reach was as influential as its vast audience, finishing with 85,000,000 uniques for the month of March. It is a rare publication indeed that can boast such a broad and deep readership, from the corner office to the Oval Office.

[Robert Thomson, Chief Executive Officer at News]

News Corp Australia's mastheads provide an important platform for informed reporting and debate during the recent election campaign. And we also saw continued growth in digital subscriptions, reaching 1,100,000. Meanwhile, news.com.au was the number one digital news brand in page views, achieving 292,000,000 per month in March, according to Ibsos. And Sky News Australia was the country's number one YouTube news channel with 5,500,000 subscriptions, reflecting its local and global reach. The strength of our results through the first three quarters of the current rather colorful fiscal year speaks to the meaningful metamorphosis that began a decade ago.

[Robert Thomson, Chief Executive Officer at News]

That transformation simply would not have been possible without the leadership of our chair, Lachlan Murdoch, and Chairman Emeritus Rupert Murdoch, and a thoughtful and thoroughly engaged board. Our success is also a tribute to our employees around the world. And the collective achievement is a sturdy platform on which to build even greater returns for shareholders in the years to come. And now I turn to our esteemed Eridai Chief Financial Officer, Lavanya Chandrasekar, to provide further insight into our third quarter results.

[Lavanya Chandrashekar, CFO at News]

Thank you, Robert, and good afternoon. I'd like to start by reinforcing our distinguished chief executive's comments on our ongoing transformation. While economic and geopolitical conditions have been uncertain, we continue to be purposeful in our execution and strategic focus. We have transformed our asset mix, increasing exposure to recurring revenues while reducing advertising exposure. Moreover, the majority of our revenue is now digital.

[Lavanya Chandrashekar, CFO at News]

Our divestiture of Foxtel has resulted in News Corp being more weighted to our three core pillars: Dow Jones, digital real estate services and book publishing. This is expected to drive faster growth with less capital intensity and hence capital. Our strong balance sheet and steady cash flow enables us to maximize shareholder value creation. During these turbulent times, as you would expect from News Corp, we are monitoring trends closely. As things stand, the direct impact of tariffs on News Corp is expected to be immaterial.

[Lavanya Chandrashekar, CFO at News]

Of note, at present, newsprint is excluded from additional tariffs as are children's and Christian books imported from China. In these volatile times, we will continue to focus on what we can control and will seek to take cost action as necessary. Turning to the quarterly results, which I am pleased to report were again strong. As a reminder, Foxtel's financial results are reflected as discontinued operations for the fiscal twenty twenty five and twenty twenty four third quarter and year to date periods and subscription video services is no longer a reportable segment. News Corp reported fiscal third quarter revenues on a continuing operations basis of $2,000,000,000 rising 1% year over year and total segment EBITDA of $290,000,000 increasing 12% year over year.

[Lavanya Chandrashekar, CFO at News]

Margins improved by 140 basis points to 14.4%. This quarter Dow Jones and digital real estate contributed 88% of profitability. Third quarter adjusted revenues rose 2% compared to the prior year, with the difference from reported being primarily due to currency impact, while adjusted total segment EBITDA rose 15% versus the prior year. For the quarter, we reported earnings from continuing operations per share of $0.14 compared to $07 in the prior year. Adjusted earnings from continuing operations per share were $0.17 in the quarter compared to $0.13 in the prior year.

[Lavanya Chandrashekar, CFO at News]

Moving to the individual segments, starting with Dow Jones. As we expected, Dow Jones results year over year improved from the first half with reported revenues of $575,000,000 up 6% versus the prior year period and was again the largest segment contributor to overall company revenue and for this quarter also to total segment EBITDA. Digital revenue accounted for 82% of total Dow Jones segment revenues this quarter improving one percentage point from last year. Overall, Professional Information business revenues, which reflect our B2B products and services, rose 6% year over year overcoming a 200 basis point adverse impact from Factiva, primarily due to the ongoing customer dispute that we mentioned last quarter, a modest improvement from the second quarter impact. Risk and compliance grew 11% to $84,000,000 with the growth driven by new customers, new products and improved yield.

[Lavanya Chandrashekar, CFO at News]

At Dow Jones Energy, revenue grew 10% to $69,000,000 with customer retention remaining very strong at over 90%. In April, we reinvested in Risk and Compliance to further enhance its product offerings and datasets to include geopolitical, security, intelligence and risk analysis via the acquisition of Dragonfly and Oxford Analytica. At Energy, customer demand for our key benchmark pricing products remained robust and we continue to expand our offerings with the launch of several new indices, assisting customers to hedge more effectively and manage risk in increasingly volatile markets. Within the Dow Jones consumer business, circulation revenues rose 7% versus the prior year, benefiting from an improvement in digital circulation revenue of 14%, notably higher than the 8% growth posted in the second quarter as we moved customers from introductory and bundled promotions to higher pricing. Digital ARPU also increased quarter over quarter and year over year.

[Lavanya Chandrashekar, CFO at News]

Also of note, the digital circulation revenue growth included approximate 300 basis points timing benefit. Digital circulation revenues accounted for 75% of circulation revenues for this quarter, up from 70% in the prior year. Digital only subscriptions improved by 9% year on year and by 191,000 sequentially benefiting from seasonality, particularly related to students and marked the highest addition since the third quarter of twenty twenty four. Advertising revenue of $86,000,000 was flat, improving from the prior quarter and the first half rate with both digital and print relatively flat. Digital represented 63% of advertising revenues in line with the prior year.

[Lavanya Chandrashekar, CFO at News]

Dow Jones segment EBITDA for the quarter grew 12% to $132,000,000 with margins increasing to 23%. Moving on to Digital Real Estate. Digital Real Estate had another solid quarter despite a tough prior year comparison and ForEx headwinds with segment revenues of $4.00 $6,000,000 up 5% versus the prior year and up 8% on an adjusted basis. Segment EBITDA was $124,000,000 up 19% and up 25% on an adjusted basis. REA revenues rose 6% year on year to $271,000,000 which included a $14,000,000 adverse impact from ForEx fluctuations.

[Lavanya Chandrashekar, CFO at News]

REA revenue grew 11% on a constant currency basis. Growth was driven by a combination of residential yield increases and customer contract upgrades. Residential yield growth improved by 15%. Listings in the quarter were flat compared to the prior year, with listings in Sydney up 4% and Melbourne down 3%. Listings benefited from Easter falling into the fourth quarter this year, but were negatively impacted by floods in Queensland.

[Lavanya Chandrashekar, CFO at News]

REA also benefited from higher revenues at REA India and growth at Financial Services due to higher settlements. Please refer to REA's earnings release and their conference call for more details. REALTOR's revenue for the quarter of $135,000,000 was up 2% compared to the prior year marking the second consecutive quarter of revenue growth despite continued difficult macro conditions. At REALTOR, lower referral and lead generation revenues were more than offset by robust growth from adjacencies. REALTOR continued to show strong growth from new revenue streams such as seller, new homes and rentals, which now represent 22% of revenues.

[Lavanya Chandrashekar, CFO at News]

Rentals in particular was notably strong driven by the partnership with Zillow. Realtor dot com has been shifting its audience acquisition and engagement strategies to focus on higher quality consumers and leads, which resulted in a notable increase in revenue per lead in the quarter, partly offsetting softer lead volumes. This shift combined with the persistent affordability issues and home sales volatility resulted in lead volumes declining 17, while average monthly unique users for the quarter fell 8% year over year to 66,000,000 at realtor.com. Expenses at realtor came in better than we had initially forecasted, driven by the shift of a new brand campaign to the fourth quarter. At Book Publishing, as expected, the phasing of front list titles weighed on performance this quarter.

[Lavanya Chandrashekar, CFO at News]

That said, segment revenues of $514,000,000 which rose 2% represented the second highest third quarter on record, while segment EBITDA of $64,000,000 rose 3%. The third quarter results included the recently acquired German book publisher. The strong performance from Christian Publishing and continued growth from The UK offset lower general book sales due to timing of front list releases compared with the third quarter last year. Adjusted revenues were flat. HarperCollins posted digital revenues of $122,000,000 up 3%, which was impacted by a combination of the current release late and lapping the start of the Spotify partnership last year.

[Lavanya Chandrashekar, CFO at News]

In total, digital sales represented 25% of consumer revenues, flat compared to the prior year. The backlist contributed 65% of consumer revenues, up from 63% last year. Turning to News Media. Overall revenue performance was challenged due to tougher advertising conditions, partially offset by increased cover prices and subscription pricing across Revenue for the quarter was $514,000,000 down 8% versus the prior year, while adjusted revenues fell 6%. Segment EBITDA was up 22% year over year to $33,000,000 driven by cost savings initiatives similar to the first half, most notably in The UK from the benefits of the commercial printing joint venture with DMG Media and lower talk costs and further cost initiatives at News Australia.

[Lavanya Chandrashekar, CFO at News]

Adjusted segment EBITDA also rose 22%. Turning to the outlook. Some of the themes across each of our segments. At Dow Jones, the team remains focused on B2B growth, including upselling and new products across Risk and Compliance and Dow Jones Energy. We are pleased with the performance and continue to expect improvement in growth in the second half compared to the first half.

[Lavanya Chandrashekar, CFO at News]

Given the mix of subscribers and timing, we expect circulation revenue growth to be more similar to the second quarter, which was also very strong. At digital real estate, Australian residential Dubai listings for April were down 11%, which was impacted by the timing of public holidays. Please refer to REA for more detailed outlook commentary. Realtor.com will continue to focus on technology improvements and enhanced content and product offerings. We expect the rate of reinvestment to be modestly higher in the fourth quarter as we continue to focus on growth initiatives and as mentioned also plan to launch a new ad campaign in the quarter.

[Lavanya Chandrashekar, CFO at News]

At Book Publishing, overall, we will face particularly difficult comparisons in the fourth quarter compared to the prior year. At News Media, we expect the segment to continue to benefit from ongoing cost initiatives, while advertising is likely to be volatile given the macro uncertainty. Also of note, we will lap the beginning of the cost savings from the commercial joint venture with DMG Media and the changes at Talk TV. As mentioned last quarter, we expect other segment costs to be higher than last year, including ongoing AI and related legal costs. With that, let me hand it over to the operator for Q and A.

[Operator]

Thank you. We will now start the q and a session. Please limit your questions to one per participant. If you've joined via the Zoom application, please use the raise hand functionality to ask a question. If you've joined via the audio line, please press 9.

[Operator]

Questions will be answered in the order they are received. We'll now pause a moment to assemble the queue. Our first question will come from Keenan Hanan with Goldman Sachs. Just

[Kane Hannan, Analyst at Goldman Sachs]

thank you for the questions. Just, I suppose, on the Dow Jones business, the standout in the quarter. Just is there any more color you can share around how we think about the rate of investment going into the fourth quarter? It did pick up a little bit this quarter. And just where that investment was, is that on sort of Dow Jones consumer or across the PIPs business?

[Kane Hannan, Analyst at Goldman Sachs]

And also how we think about going forward as well would be helpful.

[Robert Thomson, Chief Executive Officer at News]

Kane, there there was no particular startling increase in in investment in Dodgen. We did make the acquisition and the related acquisition costs that of Dragonfly and Oxford Analytica, which will add to the professional information business. But but we are duly focused on both the consumer business where we are seeing that increase in in ARPU that Lavanya spoke about on the last call, and we'll continue to do what's necessary and reasonable to to drive that revenue. And secondly, with with Pibbul, I can say is that we're consistently reporting double digit revenue increases in the key segments, and there's no reason to presume that those double digit increases will not continue, particularly at risk and compliance and energy, where we have been adding new services modestly and creating new products about charging a premium for premium content. As mentioned, the overall PIB numbers have been complicated by a fractious Factiva relationship, which had a 200 basis point impact on total revenue, but we are now beginning to lap that issue.

[Robert Thomson, Chief Executive Officer at News]

Overall, we are extremely confident about the continuing growth of both revenue and profits at the professional information business.

[Michael Florin, Senior VP & Head of Investor Relations at News]

Thank you, Kane. Luke, we will take our next question, please.

[Operator]

Our next question will come from the line of Entrav Rokowski with Evidence Partners. Please unmute and ask your question.

[Entcho Raykovski, Executive Director, Media & Telco at Evans & Partners]

Robert. Hi, Lavinia. My question is also on Dow Jones. Just to follow-up on the 200 basis point impact on BIB from the Factiva dispute. Do you mind just to clarify, do you expect a similar impact in the fourth quarter?

[Entcho Raykovski, Executive Director, Media & Telco at Evans & Partners]

And then longer term, I'm just interested in any comments you could provide on where Dow Jones margins can get to. You mentioned last quarter that you'd expect margins to expand given people be a greater contributor to earnings. I mean, you obviously saw that 1.3% expansion in the quarter. So is there a longer term target you can share or even just some quantitative direction that would be quite useful? Thank you.

[Lavanya Chandrashekar, CFO at News]

Thank you, Ancho. I'll maybe start and then Robert can add on. On the Factiva dispute, look, as we cycle through it, as we as we start to lap it, I mean, the impact of the of the, will start to reduce. So in the fourth quarter, I should I would expect a smaller impact than what we've seen in the third quarter, which was sequentially smaller than in the second quarter as well. On margins, here's how I think about margins on Dow Jones.

[Lavanya Chandrashekar, CFO at News]

First and foremost, the growth of the professional information service business, that really does help lead to margins, you know, the kind of strong growth that we've had on that business of 6% this quarter with risk and compliance up 11%, Endowjoin's energy up 10%. That definitely helps, both with operating leverage as well as with sweetening the mix. The growth on the consumer business as well helps with operating leverage. And then, you know, the team, as always, continues to be focused on being very disciplined on costs as well. And so that that also helps with margin growth.

[Robert Thomson, Chief Executive Officer at News]

Yes, Andrew. Just to reiterate what Blavyn just said, the as you note, the margin expanded from 21.7% to 23%. And there's every reason to believe that as that professional information business expands, so will the overall margin as that is a higher margin segment. PIB revenues now account for 39% of revenues and a majority of profit, and that PIB share of the business is expanding quarter after quarter.

[Michael Florin, Senior VP & Head of Investor Relations at News]

Thank you. And, Joe, Luke, we will take our next question, please.

[Operator]

Our next question will come from David Joyce with Seaport Research. Please unmute your line and ask your question.

[David Joyce, Senior Equity Analyst - Media Sector at Seaport Research Partners]

Thank you. Given your very strong balance sheet position now, I was wondering how you're prioritizing the strategy going forward for capital allocation across internal investments, external investments, capital returns. And to the extent there are M and A opportunities, do you envision anything that would provide incremental connectivity among your business lines or would be really still focusing on some of the core growth drivers, like professional business services? Thanks.

[Robert Thomson, Chief Executive Officer at News]

David, when it comes to, acquisitions, obviously, we can't be specific, but we can be give general guidance, and and that is we have identified three core pillars, and and we will look for opportunities in those three areas. What we will certainly not do is squander our hard earned cash by overpaying for businesses. And, yeah, I think you can see our record in that regard in recent years, dare I say, has been impeccable. Look, it's also true that we've received approximately 592,000,000 Australian dollars in cash for the repayment of the Foxtel shareholder loans. Now we've obviously been conscious of our responsibility to shareholders, and and that imperative will simply never wane.

[Robert Thomson, Chief Executive Officer at News]

There has been we've all been subject to a certain amount of market turbulence, but our share price as of the close today was just over 32% higher than a year ago. And look, we take that not as a conclusion, but as an increment. And it is fair to say we've been carefully marshaling our cash, maximizing our investments, and ensuring that returns through our dividend and a billion dollar buyback reflect those resources. Last fiscal, we returned 70% of our available free cash flow to investors. And as was noted, we've been recently upgraded to investment grade by both Moody's and S and P.

[Robert Thomson, Chief Executive Officer at News]

So clearly, our optionality has really been greater.

[Michael Florin, Senior VP & Head of Investor Relations at News]

Thank thank you, David. Thank you, David. Luke, we'll take our next question, please.

[Operator]

Our next question will come from the line of Greg Huber with Huber Research. Please unmute your line and ask your question.

[Craig Huber, Equity Research Analyst at Huber Research Partners]

Great. Thank you. Appreciate it. Robert, I guess, first, congratulations in getting the Foxtel deal done. Should investors, as you guys think out over the next six to twelve months, expect you guys to rationalize, simplify the company any further.

[Craig Huber, Equity Research Analyst at Huber Research Partners]

I mean, anything more potentially on the real estate side where we have to maybe wait until maybe realtor.com sort of turns the corner here in terms of revenue growth and in margin profit enhancement or and also Factiva too. I mean, I I go back a long way with Dow Jones. I mean, covered on the sell side back. Was you know, it a stand alone company of twenty, twenty two years ago, and never back then, Factiva was in tough shape and, you know, still kinda struggling. I'm just looking listening to the numbers and stuff.

[Craig Huber, Equity Research Analyst at Huber Research Partners]

Just wondering if that might be open to be get it off the books. Thank you. Just just further thoughts on simplifying the company. Thank you.

[Robert Thomson, Chief Executive Officer at News]

Sure. Craig, look. The the Foxtel deal itself is a living, breathing example of our continuing willingness to make significant decisions about structure, and focus in the interest of our shareholders. There's often much discussion about digital real estate, and we obviously examine all segments. But I think, Craig, as you sagely savvily noted on the last earnings call, the current state of The US property market means that there's a significant under appreciation of realtors' value.

[Robert Thomson, Chief Executive Officer at News]

And whatever we may happen to do in whatever sector, we are focused on realizing maximum value for our shareholders. If you look at what we've done over the past few years, we are certainly not strategic somnambulists. We have a fairly clear vision of trends and challenges and opportunities, and we are now in a prime position to take further advantage for both the short and long term advantage of our shareholders. The assets we've retained and developed are world class, as are our teams, and they are in sectors primed for growth. Look, we remain focused on increasing our asset value and reducing the implied discount to intrinsic value, needless to say, which means I am indulging in tautology, we have never been complacent, but we do have some reason to be confident.

[Michael Florin, Senior VP & Head of Investor Relations at News]

Thank you Thank you. Craig. Thanks, Craig. Luke, we will take our next question, please.

[Operator]

Our next question will come from the line of Alan Glad with Loop Capital. Please unmute your line and ask your question.

[Alan Gould, Managing Director at Loop Capital]

Yeah. Thanks for taking the question. Robert, I'd to talk about the the original portion of the Dow Jones business. Pibb is doing great, but the original one, you're continuing to grow subs. I know part of the strategy is converting people from promotional pricing to higher paying pricing.

[Alan Gould, Managing Director at Loop Capital]

How is that how is that, endeavor going?

[Robert Thomson, Chief Executive Officer at News]

Yeah. You're right in in, pricing, our strategy at Dow Jones. And total subs were 7% higher driven by digital subs, which rose 14%. And we are very focused on average revenue per subscriber and seeing positive trends as the Dow Jones dynamic pricing strategy is unfolding. I mean, that trend itself was reflected in the overall 7% increase in circulation revenues, which were up from 3% increase in the previous quarter.

[Robert Thomson, Chief Executive Officer at News]

Now the Dow Jones team is rather confident that the phasing of subscribers from discounted entry level offices offers to more standard pricing is proceeding well, and that strategy will be reflected in the digital numbers in coming quarters. And by the way, in total at Dow Jones, digital contributed to 82% of revenues. So we are talking about a company that's certainly contemporary in character and a powerful digital platform on which to build.

[Michael Florin, Senior VP & Head of Investor Relations at News]

Thank you, Alan. Thanks, Alan. Luke, we'll take our next question, please.

[Operator]

Yes. And as a reminder, if you've joined via the Zoom application, please use the raise hand functionality if you'd like to ask a question. If you've dialed in today, please press 9 to raise your hand. Our next question will come from Evan Karatz with UBS. Please unmute your line by pressing 6 to ask your question.

[Evan Karatzas, Director at UBS Group]

Okay. Hi. Thanks. Just maybe follow-up on that with the the the higher price plan, moving customers to higher price plan. Just can you talk to, I guess, the the churn impact from those customers moving to the non promotion plans?

[Evan Karatzas, Director at UBS Group]

And I guess also any learnings from that in terms of the elasticity of those consumer subs and, I guess, maybe more medium term if potentially price increases could be more of a theme going forward that might help with continued ARPU growth for that that consumer subs business, please? Thanks.

[Robert Thomson, Chief Executive Officer at News]

Evan, we're we're learning every day about price elasticity, which is the really, the the kernel of the dynamic pricing system that's been deployed by by the team at Dow Jones. Obviously, advanced AI is is making that process somewhat easier. It's it's you're able to identify certain cohorts where you do have more elasticity, and you are able to identify certain cohorts where there may be some vulnerability. And so over time, there's no doubt the aim is to reduce churn and maximize revenue, and we have both the expertise and the tools at our disposal.

[Michael Florin, Senior VP & Head of Investor Relations at News]

Thank you, Evan. Luke, we will take our next question, please.

[Operator]

At this time, we have no further questions. I'll hand the call back over to Michael Florin for closing remarks.

[Michael Florin, Senior VP & Head of Investor Relations at News]

Well, thank you, Luke, and thank you for all the investors, for participating. We look forward to talking to you shortly, and have a wonderful day. Bye for now.

Participants

Executives

• Michael Florin, Senior VP & Head of Investor Relations
• Robert Thomson, Chief Executive Officer
• Lavanya Chandrashekar, CFO

Analysts

• Kane Hannan, Analyst at Goldman Sachs
• Entcho Raykovski, Executive Director, Media & Telco at Evans & Partners
• David Joyce, Senior Equity Analyst - Media Sector at Seaport Research Partners
• Craig Huber, Equity Research Analyst at Huber Research Partners
• Alan Gould, Managing Director at Loop Capital
• Evan Karatzas, Director at UBS Group