Q3 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

Welcome to News Corp's Third Quarter Fiscal 2026 Earnings Conference Call. Today's conference is being recorded. Media will be allowed on a listen-only basis. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Michael Florin, Senior Vice President and Global Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you very much, operator. Hello, everyone, and welcome to News Corp's Fiscal Third Quarter 2026 Earnings Call. We issued our earnings press release about 30 minutes ago, and it's now posted on our website at newscorp.com. On the call today are Robert Thomson, Chief Executive; and Lavanya Chandrashekar, Chief Financial Officer.

We'll have some prepared remarks, and we'll be happy to take questions from the investment community. 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-K 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 releases for the applicable periods posted on our website. With that, I'll pass it over to Robert Thomson for some opening comments.

Thank you, Mike. News Corp has again delivered resounding results this quarter, indeed marking the 12th straight quarter of profitability growth on a continuing operations basis. For the third quarter of fiscal 2026, our total revenue rose 9% to $2.2 billion, while total segment EBITDA increased a handsome 18% to $343 million, and the overall margin expanded from 14.4% to 15.7%. Net income from continuing operations rose 13%, whilst both EPS and adjusted EPS were notably higher.

Our third quarter results reflect a continuation of the positive trends that emerged in the first half, and we remain on track for another record fiscal year of profitability given the strength seen thus far in the fourth quarter. The robust free cash flow and strong cash position have provided much optionality in maximizing long-term shareholder value. Given our firm belief that the current share price does not reflect the intrinsic value of the company or its prospects, we have continued to execute our enhanced buyback program at an accelerated rate. In assessing our overall performance, the results reflect the ongoing transformation of the company and its ability to prosper in circumstances which are not particularly auspicious.

Interest rates remain rather high and the conflict in the Middle East has exacerbated uncertainty. And yet that conflict has also highlighted the importance of our News and Intelligence businesses, both socially and commercially. The increased profits are driven by the three sectors on which we have focused our strategic investment: Dow Jones, Digital Real Estate Services and Book Publishing, all of which reported double-digit increases in profit this quarter, and we believe they have much positive momentum. Our confidence comes as the world is grappling with the potential impact of AI.

We are an AI inputs company, and that fact was reflected in our recent deal with Meta, which complements our partnership with OpenAI. We are negotiating several further deals with companies who recognize the preciousness of our provenance and which should have a positive impact on our revenue and profitability. We also expect to receive our fair share of the proceeds of the $1.5 billion settlement with Anthropic starting later this calendar year, an outcome which asserts the integrity of intellectual property and benefits authors and book publishers. Importantly, the decisions to partner with us by global AI leaders reinforce that status as an input company.

Semiconductors are inputs. Energy is an input, and editorial is an absolutely essential input. AI engines require information, and they need constant updates to remain relevant. Otherwise, they are merely retrospective.

Few companies on the planet have the depth of archive and the immediacy of contemporary content that we can offer across borders and across segments. We are also seeing a rapid proliferation of vertical specialist AI companies focusing on specific segments. We believe this is a whole new generation of opportunity for our companies, whether our mastheads, HarperCollins or digital real estate, which generates a vast amount of unique repurposable data. Separately, we are tracking a number of dodgy digital firms scraping illicitly, illegally our precious content and shamelessly reselling this purloined property.

We have these baleful bad-boy bots in our sights and intend to pursue them vigorously. And it should be noted carefully. We believe companies which willingly buy the stolen content from these nefarious fences are also culpable. There is a clear distinction between the [ Odious and Ananias ].

Now let's turn to our segments. Dow Jones delivered yet another superb quarter. Revenues rose 8% to $619 million and segment EBITDA expanded by 11% to $147 million, with our margin expanding by 70 basis points compared to a year earlier to 23.7%. Significantly, this marks 13 consecutive quarters of year-over-year EBITDA growth for Dow Jones, bolstered by continuing strength across risk and compliance and our burgeoning energy business.

As we shared during our Investor Day in March, we see a clear path for Dow Jones to reach $1 billion in annual segment EBITDA within the next 5 years. Not only does Dow Jones world-class journalism and extensive data and intelligence serve as the lifeblood of AI, they are indispensable resources for thoughtful readers and for knowing executives seeking to lead enlightened enterprises. In the third quarter, revenues at Risk and Compliance surged 19% as demand expanded from corporate customers in a volatile world seeking to minimize risk and maximize compliance. We continue to see solid demand in our energy business, where revenues rose 12% and the boost in U.S. energy exports is clearly a positive emerging trend for our business, which has unique data from and insights into the U.S. industry.

On the consumer side, digital direct subscription ARPU continued to improve, while digital-only subscriptions grew just 9% on the previous year. Remember, these are core new subscriptions, not recipes, which, like much evergreen content, are indeed susceptible in the AI age. Meanwhile, digital advertising revenue rose 13%, improving on the increase in Q2, led by stronger demand from the technology and finance sectors. Our Digital Real Estate Services segment continued to show strength even though the housing markets in Australia and the U.S. are being buffeted by cross winds.

Reported profit increased with EBITDA surging 25% year-over-year, while the margin widened from 30.5% to 32.8%. Revenues at realtor.com in the U.S. rose 10%, even though the 30-year mortgage rate has generally remained above 6% and existing house sales were near historic lows. The realtor.com team has done a splendid job retooling the business, and we should be primed to prosper when rates decline and liquidity in the housing market returns. Realtor.com has also just partnered with our friends at OpenAI to take advantage of their AI expertise in improving the experience for sellers, buyers and realtors.

Realtor.com already has far greater engagement in the competitor set according to independent Comscore metrics. In Q3, realtor.com averaged 5.3 visits per unique user compared to only 3.5 visits at Zillow, 2.9 visits at Redfin and 1.9 visits at Homes.com. The team's strenuous efforts to make the site a holistic property experience are clearly paying dividends. At REA, revenue grew 20%, thanks in part to solicitous ForEx fluctuations, but also because the team's determination to provide enhanced services to our customers led to a 14% increase in yield.

The potential upside at REA remains exciting, given the focus on product development and the success in sensible adjacencies such as mortgages, where we are able to leverage our knowledge of customers and their needs. At HarperCollins, we had a particularly strong quarter with EBITDA rising 14%, while revenue increased a healthy 8%, well ahead of the overall industry trends. Our margin broadened from 12.5% to 13.2% as we benefited from higher digital sales with e-books surging 17% and audiobooks increasing 7%. We continue to see feverish interest in Rachel Reid's Heated Rivalry in print and digital and even in countries in which ice hockey is not a mainstream sport.

Rachel is adding two more voluptuous volume to the steamy saga, which has already become a cult classic. Now as we approach the summer months in the Northern Hemisphere, we look forward to fascinating fourth quarter releases that include Vice President, J.D. Vance's Communion, which tells of his personal spiritual journey as well as releases from Ann Patchett, Alex Aster and Laurie Gilmore. We are also heartened by the release of the Remarkably Bright Creature movie on Netflix this week and by releases from the gifted Sarah A.

Parker and the inimitable Dana Perino. In News Media, we saw a 5% increase in revenue to $538 million, though reported a decline in profits, in part due to investment in new projects, including the successful launch of the California Post, which has already attracted much attention from readers and advertisers with its fast coverage of an important but underreported region. While still early days, we are encouraged by traffic trends and have seen meaningful increases in daily active users and engagement across the New York Post Media Group from California-based users. News U.K. closed the quarter with 676,000 subscribers for The Times and The Sunday Times, a 7% gain on the prior year, while digital advertising for The Sun Rebounded and, in fact, increased by double digits.

We are looking forward to the positive benefits of the World Cup for our talented team at talkSPORT, which, like our other London-based media, will certainly benefit if England wins the ultimate prize. At News Corp Australia, digital subscription revenue benefited from improved ARPU and an increase in total digital subscribers to 1.2 million, while digital advertising showed improvement year-on-year. In conclusion, the third quarter was compelling evidence of the transformation of our business and demonstrated the robustness of our core growth engines, which we expect will propel us towards a strong fiscal finish.

None of this would be possible without the thoughtful leadership of our Chair, Lachlan Murdoch, the wisdom of our engaged Board and the sterling efforts of our employees around the world. And now our Chief Financial Officer, Lavanya Chandrashekar, will enlighten you further.

Thank you, Robert, and good afternoon, everyone. Our third quarter results demonstrate the continued strength and resilience of our portfolio and the benefits of disciplined strategic diversification. Despite the uneven economic backdrop, we posted accelerated top and bottom line growth led by our core pillars, Dow Jones, Digital Real Estate Services and Book Publishing, which collectively generated 17% segment EBITDA growth in the quarter, accelerating from the second quarter rate. The third quarter marks our 12th consecutive quarter of year-over-year total segment EBITDA growth on a continuing operations basis.

These consistent results are the outcome of strong operational discipline and reflect the repositioning of our portfolio. Our focus on operational efficiency has successfully driven margin expansion, and I believe there is significant opportunity for this trend to continue. News Corp has evolved well beyond the scope of a traditional media company. We are now a digital-first company with a strong recurring revenue base, complemented by high-margin content licensing revenues.

We continue to make strong progress in returning value to our shareholders and have accelerated our share buyback program. In the third quarter, we repurchased $193 million in shares, up from $172 million in the second quarter, bringing fiscal year-to-date repurchases to $459 million. We believe our stock remains materially undervalued relative to its net asset value. And as a reminder, share repurchases in fiscal 2026 are benefiting from the approximately $380 million repayment of Foxtel shareholder loans and our robust free cash flow.

Turning to the quarter. Revenues were approximately $2.2 billion, up 9% year-over-year and total segment EBITDA was $343 million, up 18%. Margins expanded by 130 basis points to 15.7%. On an adjusted basis, revenues increased 4% and total segment EBITDA grew 13%.

Earnings from continuing operations were $0.16 per share compared to $0.14 in the prior year. Adjusted EPS was $0.21, up from $0.17. Turning to Dow Jones. As highlighted during our investor briefing in March, Dow Jones has strategically pivoted into a news and digital intelligence platform, driven by strong organic growth and supported in part by the value-enhancing M&A we have successfully completed and integrated. This transformation has been fueled by exceptional growth in Risk and Compliance and Dow Jones Energy, supporting our target for $1 billion in annual segment EBITDA within 5 years.

All the compelling materials and the video replay of that investor briefing are available on the Investor Relations section of the News Corp website. As for the quarter, revenues were $619 million, growing a robust 8% year-over-year, consistent with our second quarter performance. Digital revenues represented 84% of total segment revenue, up from 82% in the prior year. Professional Information business revenue grew 11%, driven by Risk and Compliance, which increased 19% to $100 million, supported by customer growth, product expansion and improved pricing.

The acquisition and seamless integration of Dragonfly and Oxford Analytica, which have been invaluable during the Iran conflict contributed to this growth. At Dow Jones Energy, revenues grew 12% to $77 million with customer retention remaining very strong at approximately 90%. Growth was driven by improving yields, new price assessments and a modest benefit from the recent acquisition of Eco-Movement. The upheaval in energy markets is certainly more an opportunity than a challenge.

In the Consumer business, circulation revenue grew 1%, while digital circulation increased 3%, a result tempered by the absence of a licensing revenue timing benefit in the prior year. As mentioned at the investor briefing, we are actively working to optimize yield, including raising the full price rate for the Wall Street Journal digital subscription to $44.99 for new customers, increasing the price of introductory offers and continuing the rollout of higher prices for a portion of tenured subscribers. While it's still very early, we are already seeing benefits from these initiatives, delivering improving year-over-year and quarter-over-quarter growth in digital direct subscription ARPU, and we expect further improvements in the fourth quarter.

Digital circulation represented 76% of total circulation revenue compared to 75% in the prior year. Digital-only subscriptions grew 9% year-over-year with sequential net adds of approximately 53,000. We anticipate that net additions will be notably higher in the fourth quarter, driven by growth in enterprise partnerships. Advertising revenues increased 6% to $91 million, the highest third quarter revenue since fiscal 2022, with digital advertising growing 13%, while print fell 6%. Growth was driven by the finance and tech categories.

Digital represented 67% of total advertising revenue, up from 63% in the prior year. Dow Jones segment EBITDA for the quarter grew a healthy 11% to $147 million with margins increasing to 23.7%, up 70 basis points compared to the prior year. Turning to Digital Real Estate. Segment revenues were $473 million, up 17% reported and 8% on an adjusted basis.

Segment EBITDA was $155 million, up 25% reported and 16% on an adjusted basis. REA revenues grew 20% and 8% in constant currency. Growth of the Australian residential business was driven by pricing, contract upgrades and geographic mix. National new buy listings in the quarter grew 1% with Sydney up 4% and Melbourne up 7%.

The Financial business grew double digit driven by a 21% increase in settlements. Australian revenue grew low double digits, partially offset by declines at REA India due to the sale of PropTiger and the closure of the Housing Edge business as communicated previously. Please refer to the REA earnings release and the conference call for more details. Realtor.com continued to make strong progress this quarter with revenues rising 10% to $148 million and contributing to segment EBITDA growth despite the normalized marketing expenses lapping the pullback of marketing spend in the same period last year.

We continue to accelerate the pace of innovation, including the launch of the realtor.com app in ChatGPT, as Robert mentioned, and the expansion of its newly launched platform, realtor.com plus, which is receiving favorable industry feedback. This quarter, revenue growth was driven by strength in core real estate products, benefiting from 6% higher lead volume, improved yields and increased annual contract values. We continue to see strong demand for RealPRO Select, our premium program for high-performing agents and teams, which has supported further yield expansion. Additionally, our growth adjacencies, comprising new homes, rentals and sellers continue to perform well and represented 22% of revenues in the quarter.

It's worth noting that as of quarter 3, on a trailing 12-month basis, the ratio of realtor.com's revenue to existing home sales, a proxy for yield is over 20% higher compared to quarter 3, 2022, underscoring the upside potential for the business when the market recovers. According to Comscore data, realtor.com continued to gain visit share, averaging 31% of total real estate portal visits in quarter 3, improving from 29% in quarter 2, nearly 6x Homes.com and almost triple that of Redfin, while narrowing the gap to Zillow. Turning to Book Publishing. Revenues grew 8% to $555 million despite mixed industry performance.

Segment EBITDA was $73 million, up 14% year-over-year, with margins expanding 70 basis points to 13.2%. This represents the highest third quarter segment EBITDA since fiscal 2021. On an adjusted basis, revenue and EBITDA increased 4% and 14%, respectively. These robust results were driven by the strong demand for the Game Changer series due to the TV adaptation of Heated Rivalry. Digital revenues at HarperCollins grew 11% with both e-books and audiobooks increasing year-over-year.

This quarter, the backlist contributed 64% of consumer revenues compared to 65% last year. At News Media, revenue increased 5% to $538 million due to currency favorability, while adjusted revenues declined 2%, reflecting continued declines in print revenue. Segment EBITDA was $15 million, down $18 million year-over-year, reflecting lower contribution from News U.K., coupled with disciplined investment associated with the launch of the California Post. Turning to our outlook.

Needless to say, we are closely monitoring events in the Middle East. While we are not immune to certain cyclical and supply chain issues, we remain confident in our strategy, underpinned by recurring revenues and expect to report strong results in the fourth quarter. Some themes by segment. At Dow Jones, we expect continued strong revenue performance and improved margins.

At Digital Real Estate Services, Australian residential new buy listings for April rose 19%. Please refer to REA for more detailed outlook commentary, which now assumes lower operating cost growth. At Realtor, we hope to see continued revenue improvement, albeit the overall housing recovery could be impacted in the shorter term by rising mortgage rates. At Book Publishing, overall HarperCollins trends remain favorable, and we expect to benefit from a stronger frontlist program.

At News Media, we expect to incur some incremental costs compared to the prior year related to the rollout of the California Post, but should also see some benefits from new content licensing revenues. While third quarter cash flows were impacted by the timing of working capital, we expect strong free cash flow growth for the fiscal year despite moderately higher capital expenditures as we had communicated earlier this year. With that, I'll turn it over to the operator for Q&A.

[Operator Instructions] Our first question will come from Ailsa Lei with UBS.

I've just got one on Dow Jones Energy and the investment required to build out new energy benchmarks. How are you thinking about sort of the balance between continued investment into building these new benchmarks versus the return profile? And are you able to potentially quantify any investments required?

Ailsa, I think you can see in the way that we have developed that business in recent years that we do, as you suggest, balance very carefully both investment and returns. Overall, the Professional Information business accounted for about 40% of revenues in Q3, but a significantly larger percent of EBITDA as it is a higher-margin business. And that is one reason for the record profitability margin at Dow Jones itself. And there are certainly positive trends at Risk and Compliance, where revenues rose 19% and a 12% increase at Dow Jones Energy.

Your next question will come from David Karnovsky with JPMorgan.

Robert, you continue to report a nice upturn in realtor growth this quarter, and this is happening even amid still high mortgage rates. I guess, assuming you did see a kind of better macro environment, how are you thinking about the potential uplift from that? And assuming you get that revenue, how do you think about flowing through that to EBITDA versus sort of leaning into investment either into adjacencies or AI functionality?

It's a very thoughtful question. The renaissance of Realtor has really preceded the recovery of the overall U.S. housing market, which remains subject to the vicissitudes of mortgage rates. And in fact, at Realtor, our core real estate revenues rose by 15% and represented 77% of total revenues despite the sluggishness of the market. Now we and obviously, aspiring property owners are subject to a certain extent, to the whims and wisdom of the FOMC and their rulings.

But what this accelerating revenue increase at Realtor, and we've had successive quarters of double-digit increases in revenue tells you is that the team has done an extraordinary job in building the base sorting out the software and is also benefiting from targeting higher premium homes, which of themselves bring higher premiums and building on the successful expansion into adjacencies, including seller, new homes and rentals. And so when you look at March existing home sales, which are a paltry 3.98 million homes, well below the historical average. So that suppressed demand will, at some stage, be emancipated.

And Damian Eales and the team have ensured that Realtor is prime to take full advantage of any upturn.

I'd just add, Robert, that I think the team has, as you said, Damian and the team have done an absolutely brilliant job and visit shares are up at 31%, which is 6x that of Homes.com and 3x that of Redfin. We continue to invest in the brands, and you can see the benefit of that flowing through. I think I mentioned in my prepared remarks that revenue per existing home sales are now at a 20% higher level than they were in 2022. And the reason I'm calling out 2022 is because that was kind of the high watermark from a housing perspective. But you can imagine that with this much higher revenue per house now as the real estate market comes back, as Robert mentioned, we are positioned to really take full advantage of it.

Your next question will come from David Joyce with Seaport Research.

And thinking about your risk and compliance and energy offerings, I think that you've really got accelerating demand these days. Are there areas that your clients are asking for more products that you can develop internally organically or where you might have opportunities to do some more tuck-ins?

David, we're constantly reevaluating the portfolio. But I think you're right to suggest that the product extensions are possible. And the team at Dow Jones is very vigilant in taking advantage of opportunity, which is why the businesses are prospering at the moment. But at the -- given the volatility in macroeconomic circumstances, and also the continuing regulatory vigilance of governments around the world, the imperative for companies and their boards to minimize risk and maximize compliance remains real.

And secondly, the changing patterns in energy markets, in particular, the surge of U.S. exports to the rest of the world is of itself creating a new customer base, which we can take advantage of without necessarily increasing investment.

Yes. Robert, if I could add. I mean, during the Dow Jones Investor Day, we did point out that the risk and compliance market is indeed an enormous $3.7 billion, and it's growing at 11% to 13%. We believe there are several opportunities to continue to grow the business, both organically and inorganically.

Inorganically, we recently completed and we are getting to the anniversary of the integration of Dragonfly and Oxford Analytica, which have played an enormously big role during the Iran war, gathering a lot of attention and interest. And organically, I mean, we talked about it at the investor briefing, but we have a big white space, both from an international perspective as well as we've done really well with corporates versus financial institutions, and there is plenty of room for us to continue to drive growth in those areas as well.

Your next question will come from Entcho Raykovski with Evans & Partners.

So my question is also around potential AI opportunities. I suppose, are you able to talk about the broad quantum of additional revenue from partnerships with AI platforms that you could receive? And if you can't give us specific numbers, perhaps how does it compare with what you contracted -- what you've contracted to date with Meta and OpenAI? And again, maybe just drilling down into that, how much will the Meta, OpenAI partnerships deliver on a combined basis?

I know you can't talk about individual contracts, but if you can talk about it on a combined basis, that would be useful.

Entcho, we obviously can't discuss the precise details of confidential deals, but the Meta agreement is an important partnership as is our agreement with OpenAI. And both agreements are more than purely transactional. We'll be exchanging insights as the use of AI evolves exponentially. And you will be able to see the impact in our accounts over the next few years.

There's no doubt about that. As for AI itself, we are in the midst of advanced negotiations with several companies. And it is clear that many have come to recognize that the purchase of IP is as important as the acquisition of semiconductors or the securing of stable energy sources. IP powers AI.

IP is an input imperative. And as always, there is a mix of [indiscernible]. We would prefer the former, but we will never shy away from protecting our property rights. The integrity of creativity must be safeguarded.

And for example, as for the perplexing -- perplexity, we are now not the only media company that has brought an action. And that's because we would argue that the IP excesses have been so egregiously egregious that even certain other media companies have noticed. Now we're looking very much forward to the discovery process because we have full confidence that fascinating illuminating material will surface. We will always be open to a settlement, but the figure needs to be meaningful.

And the deals do keep rolling. Bloomberg, for example, buying Dow Jones AI rights, the $1.5 billion Anthropic settlement, the OpenAI partnership, the Meta agreement and various other negotiations. Now the way to think about these negotiations is that there will be substantial deals with the larger horizontal AI companies and then multiple meaningful agreements with specialist verticals who require both archive and updates in their areas of specialist expertise. So these are indeed propitious times for our IP.

Your next question will come from Craig Huber with Huber Research.

Can you speak, if you would, about the benefits you guys have are getting internally from the use of AI? And is there any way of quantifying what the annual cost savings is at this stage from using AI here to save costs, et cetera, make the company more efficient? Anything on that front you could help us with?

Sure. Maybe I can start. Craig, thank you for your question. I divide up the benefits that we're getting from AI into a few different areas.

The first I'd say is in helping to make our products better, more accessible to consumers and including new revenue streams. Obviously, the most obvious one is the licensing agreements that we have with the big platforms. But outside of that, we have seen significant benefits that we've been able to build AI into making Factiva more user-friendly and more widely usable. We're seeing that in our book publishing business where we are able to use AI.

We're testing AI for both translation as well as for the creation of audiobooks. There's numerous examples of where -- on both Realtor and on REA using conversational search, I can go on. There's a long list of things that are in play that can help us to drive revenue growth. In terms of efficiencies, the most obvious ones is -- right now is like coding and using AI to be able to develop some of our product features faster to be able to test them using AI versus using people.

So there's a whole efficiency play over there. Also just being able to assist our people in getting work done, whether it's in the newsroom or whether it is in back-office operations. There's tremendous opportunities for us to be able to get work done more efficiently and effectively. And every one of our businesses are pursuing every one of these opportunities.

[Operator Instructions] For our next question, we'll go to Brian Han with Morningstar.

A question for Lavanya. Can you please talk about the drivers of the big reduction in losses in the other division and whether you think there's a sustainable step down in those other losses?

Yes. Other segment represents kind of our -- the cost of running the total corporation outside of the business units. And what we saw is in quarter three was reduced expenses, not reduced losses necessarily, and that was related most particularly towards our stock compensation calculations. For a full year, I would expect that the other segment will be similar to the prior year and potentially slightly lower.

Your next question will come from David Fabris with Macquarie.

I'm curious how we should think about the earnings profile for the News Media segment. Are you able to talk about the start-up costs from the California Post or the impact from the News U.K. in the quarter? And then just thinking about these two pieces, do we annualize them going forward? Or how do we think about them over the next three quarters?

David, you can see in the News Media segment that revenue over the year was 5% higher. So the decline in EBITDA reflected modestly tougher trading conditions in Australia and the U.K. and more significantly, the launch cost of the California Post which is certainly not an extravagant investment, but an investment nonetheless. We've -- and for context, we've launched the California Post on the back of the rebounding profitability of the New York Post and look forward to expanding our revenue and profits over time. But we should be very clear about the broader context of the News Media segment.

That segment reported a net decline in EBITDA of $18 million, including those launch and marketing costs. For the company overall, our EBITDA rose 18%, and our profit margins rose from 14.4% to 15.7%. So I think that does give you a sense of the contemporary context of the News Media segment.

I think just to add a couple of things. One is this segment has had a strong track record of being able to drive cost efficiencies year-on-year. We've seen this in the early part of this year and last year with the work that the News U.K. team and building out a partnership with DMG, which has significantly helped to drive efficiencies and operating costs on the print side of things. And that partnership is -- they're actually expanding it, which should deliver further efficiencies going forward.

In Australia, I would call out the team as well in streamlining operations and helping to drive year-on-year cost reductions. The kind of looking at how do we think about it going forward, quarter 4, we'll see some benefits from some content licensing revenues, while we continue to invest in the California Post, which, as Robert said, we are being very disciplined about.

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

Well, thank you, Leila, and thank you all for participating today. Have a wonderful day, and we will talk to you soon. Take care.