Good day, and welcome to the News Corp 4th Quarter Fiscal 2017 Earnings Call. Today's call is being recorded. Media is allowed to join today's conference in a listen only basis. At this time, for opening remarks and introductions, I'd like to turn the conference over to Mr. Mike Florin, Senior Vice President and Head of Investor Relations.
Please go ahead.
Thank you very much, Kevin. Hello, everyone, and welcome to News Corp's fiscal Q4 of 20 17 earnings call. We issued our earnings
press release about an hour ago and
it's now posted on our website at newscorp.com. On the call today are Robert Thompson, Chief Executive and Susan Fanucchio, Chief Financial Officer. We'll open with some prepared remarks and then 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 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 Hello segment EBITDA, adjusted segment EBITDA and adjusted EPS. The definitions and GAAP to non GAAP reconciliations of such measures can be found in our earnings release. With that, I'll pass it over to Robert Thompson for some opening comments. Thank you, Mike.
Fiscal 2017 was an important year for News Corp as we posted tangible improvement in profitability powered by the fast growing digital real estate services segment and we monetized premium content, while continuing our commitment to increased operating efficiencies. Since our reincarnation, we have been assertively digital and have led the global debate on the value of content by word and by deed at a time of profound change in our markets and in society. That strategy continues to pay off as evidenced by our full year operating results and by the broadening debate for which News Corp has been a catalyst. We are more than the sum of our part. Our acquisitions and digital development have changed the composition of the company, but enhanced the personality and principles that have defined us since the conception of the original News Corporation.
Revenues were relatively stable this year at over $8,100,000,000 despite blustery print advertising headwinds and an extra week in the prior year. But importantly, total segment EBITDA improved to $885,000,000 compared to $684,000,000 in the prior year, which included litigation settlement charges and gains. Even absent those settlements and other items, adjusted total segment EBITDA expanded 5%. For the quarter, we took significant impairments as we recognized the challenges facing print and oriented the company towards the future. Susan will provide you with further detail.
In the Q4, excluding the impact of the Zillow settlement, Digital Real Estate continued to deliver on its potential, not only as a strong source of growth, but also in its rapidly expanding contribution to overall adjusted EBITDA. At both REA and Move, we were pleased to see increased traffic, improved engagement and continuing revenue growth, particularly at realtor.com, where Move is making positive contributions to segment EBITDA. From a lagging number 3 player in the U. S. Market, realtor.com has become the most engaged with audiences and the most important source of leads for Realtors.
We are still far from satisfied with that progress as we firmly believe that the U. S. Digital property market is still in an early phase of its evolution and expect many more years of strong audience and revenue growth. In December, Realtor rolled out Advantage, a state of the art listing agent product, capturing real time feedback of our potential leads and providing more targeted ad prominence for properties. The company also unveiled new technological advances with its use of image recognition and augmented reality to highlight listing details on smartphones via its Science Snap and StreetPick products.
We are very conscious of the key role of Realtors and do not seek to disintermediate them as is clearly the aspiration of some companies in the sector. Just this week, realtor.com was pleased to enter an agreement with the Real Estate Board of New York to provide a direct syndicated feed of listings for more than 600 brokerage firms in New York City, further expanding our presence in that important market. REA continues to outperform the competition in Australia, in June achieving a record market share of 74% against domain and 7.8 times higher time spent on the site. REA is also enhancing engagement through new products as well as through the creation of compelling content relevant to buyers, sellers and agents. During the year, we divested REA's European operations, renewing our focus on core markets in Australia and East Asia.
And we recently expanded into the complementary mortgage business with the acquisition of SmartLine. That acquisition, along with a strategic partnership with NAB, allows REA to tap into a $400,000,000,000 a year home loan market. Also in fiscal 2017, News Corp's standing as the world's largest digital real estate business was bolstered through the merger of housing.com and proptiger.com, creating India's most comprehensive digital real estate platform. That market is at an early stage of its development, but we see an important role in ensuring that all families in India have access to accurate listings and insightful information when making such a crucial investment. Some of the highlights, excluding the impact of the extra week last year were: The Wall Street Journal saw strong digital growth, ending with nearly 1,300,000 digital subscribers, representing 56% of the journal's total paid subscribers, up almost 70% in the past 2 years.
In fact, at Dow Jones, we saw 10% circulation revenue growth in the 4th quarter, the largest it has experienced since fiscal 2011. Meanwhile, the team streamlined print costs and reinvested in digital through the implementation of our WSJ 2020 strategy. In total, digital accounted for 55% of Dow Jones full year revenues. Our Professional Information business has gained in strength with risk and compliance delivering a strong performance and a healthy sales pipeline. For the year, risk and compliance revenues rose over 20% with close to 30% growth year on year in Q4, and we expect even higher growth in fiscal 2018.
At the New York Post, digital ad revenue more than offset declines in print advertising for 2 straight fiscal years. The Post has also had success in monetizing mobile with 41% of digital ad revenue coming from mobile in fiscal 2017. We are sharing lessons about mobile successes and techniques around the entire company with far greater rapidity and alacrity. While print advertising remains challenged across the newspaper industry, our emerging digital advertising platform, News IQ, will help us meet the needs of advertisers through precise and permissioned customer data from our monthly unique U. S.
Audience of over 110,000,000 people. We strongly believe that for advertisers, our ability to deliver premium content in a prestige environment will set us apart from the polluted platforms and commodified content. We will have more details for you about the formal launch of News IQ in coming months. On the other side of the globe, we saw particular success at The Australian, where readership burgeoned to nearly $500,000 a day as of May, resulting in higher revenues and EBITDA. The blossoming of The Australian reflects the immense value of excellent journalism and the importance of strong editorial leadership.
Meanwhile, news.com.au is the number one news brand in Australia according to Nielsen and taste.com.au is Australia's foremost food site. Overall, News Corp Australia remains the country's largest print and digital publisher and including REA reaches more than A16,100,000 Australians each month. In the UK, The Times was the only national newspaper to show print circulation growth in the 4th quarter. In fact, subscriptions to The Times and The Sunday Times reached an all time high of nearly 500,000 as of June 30. And on the digital front, The Times and Sunday Times are hosting over 200,000 digital only subscribers, representing 45% of its paid subscriber base and growth of 10% for the quarter versus the prior year.
Digitally, the Sun is fast closing the gap with the mail in the U. K, more than doubling our global monthly unique visitors in the past year to reach a record 85,000,000 in June. The integration of Wireless Group, which connected the Sun Sports devotees with its flagship station, TalkSPORT, is proceeding, and the complementarity between the platforms is already clear. This year, TalkSPORT won the radio rights for the English Football League, making it the biggest holder of exclusive English Football rights among U. K.
Broadcasters. And we will also deploy Wireless Group's expertise to improve the quality of our audio products around the company. News America Marketing stabilized its business this year, thanks to the impressive performance of its in store products. There is no doubt retailers are under pressure from digital competition and providing an enhanced in store experience is an imperative. Meanwhile, Checkout 50 1 comfortably surpassed its goal of reaching 10,000,000 users during this year.
At year end, the company posted a valuable digital membership base of over 14,000,000 strong and growing. That is triple the number of members at acquisition in July 2015. Book Publishing has flourished as HarperCollins showed its understanding of the American Heartland, underscored by best selling titles such as The Magnolia Story by Chip and Joanna Gaines and J. D. Vance's Hillbilly Elegy.
We also saw digital audio sales increase by 47% year over year and expanded our foreign language footprint, an important driver for long term growth as we seek to exploit our bestsellers across languages and borders. The rise of audiobooks is a particularly notable trend, highlighted by the success of Mark Manson's The Subtle Art of Not Giving and Expletive, which has audio sales of over 470,000 and print of over 490,000 showing the power of savvy self help books and of the audio genre. Returning to Australia, FOX SPORTS Australia secured its market leading position to the extension of A League Soccer rights and successfully launched the FOX League channel, its dedicated rugby league offering. Foxtel has undergone a major brand refresh, which has coincided with the rollout of Foxtel Now, a streaming service with premium content and multiple price points. Foxtel will complement that with the launch of a dedicated low cost IP box in the coming months, while the improved IQ3 state of the art set top box is showing encouraging results.
In the Q4, total subscribers at Foxtel, including IP, improved slightly from the Q3, and we saw an improvement in cable satellite churn. One other area I would like to mention in this review of fiscal 2017 is the global impact of our principled stand on intellectual property and the responsibility of the digital duopoly. It is crucial that algorithms are not used to discriminate against quality journalism and that societies have an informed debate about potential algorithmic abuse. As a result of our efforts, we have begun working with Facebook and Google on a subscription mechanic, one which could help bring more readers to our mastheads and fundamentally change the content ecosystem. In conclusion, reflecting on the quarter and the year, we are more confident than ever in the power of content and connectivity, whether it is the news of the day, the match of the week, the book of the year or the home of a lifetime.
We are dedicated to informing and inspiring our readers and our partners. And in an age of digital opacity, we are committed to making markets more transparent and more lucrative for our advertisers and allies. Our newer businesses have brought much innovation and energy to the company, and our ability to drive growth is patent and potent. Even so, we are not complacent. We will continuously drive our digital businesses and build our brands.
As custodians of a company with the proudest of histories, we know that the past is a platform for the future. For these reasons and more, we are looking forward to the coming year with much confidence in the prospects for shareholders and for our partners. And with that, I'll pass you to our CFO, Susan Panuccio.
Thank you, Robert. Before I review the financial results, I wanted to highlight a few themes from this past year and the quarter. News Corp's expansion into digital real estate is poised to reshape our long term growth. We posted very strong operating results this quarter at both REA and at Move. And this quarter, the segment accounted for 40% of total segment EBITDA, even while investing in developing markets.
And as a point of reference, our revenue for this segment has nearly tripled since separation and is approaching $1,000,000,000 annually. We think there is a good long term tailwind to the segment and see further revenue opportunity beyond the core property search. We are making progress transitioning news and information services to digital. We have seen increased evidence that our quality newspapers, The Wall Street Journal, The Times of London and The Australian have a clear digital path. All 3 now have digital paid subscribers that are approaching or are in the case of The Wall Street Journal beyond 50% of total subscribers and they are showing solid growth in paid volumes and improving circulation revenues.
We are continuing to right size the cost base by removing legacy costs at News and Information Services. However, I believe this is more we can do, as I mentioned last quarter, which I'll discuss shortly. With that, I would like to now discuss our financial results. For the full year fiscal 2017, total revenues were $8,100,000,000 a 2% decline compared to the prior year. You will recall that the prior year had the 53rd week, which positively impacted fiscal 2016 revenues by $112,000,000 Reported total segment EBITDA for the year was $885,000,000 compared to $684,000,000 in the prior year.
As a reminder, the prior year included a one time charge of $280,000,000 for the settlements at News America Marketing and the one time gain of $122,000,000 related to the Zillow settlement. Adjusted EBITDA for the year, which excludes the settlements, the impact of currency, the legal costs related to the U. K. Newspaper matters as well as acquisitions and divestments rose 5%. During the full year, we had significant non reoccurring items impacting earnings per share.
These included pre tax non cash impairment charges of $785,000,000 principally related to the fixed asset write down at the Australian and the UK publishing businesses. In addition, equity earnings of affiliates included a pre tax write down of $227,000,000 to reduce our carrying value of Foxtel. These were offset in part by a pretax gain of $107,000,000 at REA from the sale of their European businesses and an improvement in the full year operating results. As a result of these items, earnings per share from continuing operations were negative $1.27 compared to $0.28 in the prior year. Again, as a reminder, earnings per share in the prior year benefited from a lower tax expense due in large part to the release of U.
S. Tax asset valuation allowances associated with the divestment of Amplify. Adjusted earnings per share from continuing operations were $0.36 versus $0.40 in the prior year. And now to the quarterly financial details. We reported fiscal 2017 4th quarter total revenues of $2,100,000,000 down approximately 7% versus the prior year.
Again, prior year revenues included the $112,000,000 impact from the 53rd week. Reported total segment EBITDA was $215,000,000 compared to $361,000,000 in the prior year, which included the $122,000,000 gain related to the Zillow settlement and the benefit of extra week. Excluding the Zillow settlement gain, last year's EBITDA would have been $239,000,000 For the quarter, earnings per share from continuing operations were negative 0 point 7 $4 compared to 0.16 dollars in the prior year, with the prior year benefiting from the Zillow settlement gain. Results this quarter include a non cash impairment charge of $464,000,000 primarily related to the write down of fixed assets at the U. K.
Newspaper Group. Taking these into account, adjusted earnings per share from continuing operations were 0 point 1 $1 versus 0 point 1 $0 in the prior year. Turning now to the individual operating segments. In News and Information Services, revenues for the quarter declined 10% compared to the prior year to $1,300,000,000 Over half of the revenue shortfall this quarter or $77,000,000 was related to the 53rd week in the prior year. Within segment revenues, advertising declined around 12% or down 11% in local currency.
The 53rd week impacted advertising by $33,000,000 excluding the 53rd week and currency impact, advertising fell 6%. Circulation and subscription revenues decreased 9% or 6% in local currency. The 53rd week contributed $39,000,000 and accounted for the vast majority of decline this quarter. Excluding the 53rd week and currency impact, circulation revenues rose 1%. News and Information Services reported segment EBITDA this quarter was $103,000,000 down 36% versus the prior period.
The decline was primarily driven by lower print advertising revenues, a timing shift at News America Marketing between Q3 and Q4 of this year, which I highlighted last quarter and the impact of the 53rd week. I will now look at the performance for the quarter across our key operating divisions and excluding the 53rd week. At Dow Jones, total advertising revenue declined 14% versus the prior year period, fairly similar to the 3rd quarter rate, but better than the first half rate. Digital accounted for approximately 37% of Dow Jones advertising revenues this quarter. We again saw strong paid volume growth at The Wall Street Journal, where total subscriber volume across all formats reached 2,300,000, a 12% year over year increase driven by higher digital only subscriptions, which rose 34% versus the prior year.
Year over year circulation revenue growth at Dow Jones accelerated to 10%, up from mid single digits last quarter, driven by volume gains and higher subscription pricing at The Wall Street Journal. Importantly, the growth rate this quarter was the highest level achieved since fiscal 2011. In July, the Wall Street Journal increased subscription prices for new customers by $2 to $5 per month depending on the bundle and also increased cover prices by $1 for both the Monday to Friday and the weekend edition. Professional Information business revenues were flat in the 4th quarter, but grew modestly excluding foreign currency as the year over year growth at risk and compliance accelerated to around 30%. Importantly, the pipeline for new business at the Professional Information business is encouraging, giving us increased confidence that growth can be sustained into fiscal 2018.
On cost initiatives, Dow Jones realized about $60,000,000 of cost savings in fiscal 20 17 related to the Wall Street Journal 2020 initiative and is on track to achieve at least $100,000,000 in underlying cost savings on an annualized basis by the end of fiscal 2018. Cost reductions are across operations, advertising in the newsroom, which is being streamlined to be digital and mobile first. At News Australia, advertising revenues for the quarter declined 1% or 2% in local currency, helped by the acquisition of ARM. Excluding that and the sale of the Sunday Times in Perth, advertising declined approximately 10% in local currency, similar to the prior quarter. Circulation revenues at News Australia increased 1% or were flat in local currency as the acquisition of ARM, cover price increases and higher paid digital subscribers were offset by print volume declines and the sale of the Sunday Times.
We are making progress with digital subscriptions in Australia as well. Robert mentioned the turnaround at The Australian, partly due to the success of its digital subscription offering, which now has over 95,000 subscribers. Across the News Australia mastheads, we now have approximately 360,000 paid subscribers, including the ARM properties, over 30% higher from the prior year. We are continuing our assessment of the cost structure at News Australia. While we achieved approximately $40,000,000 of cost savings in fiscal 2017, it is clear that more work needs to be done, particularly given our reliance on in that market.
We expect ongoing cost reductions in fiscal 2018, while continuing to drive our digital transition. Additionally, with the integration of ARM, we continue to look at our broader regional and community newspapers to ensure the optimal
operational and cost structure exists.
At News UK, advertising revenue and cost structure exists. At News UK, advertising revenue trends are similar to last quarter as the results were likely impacted by the general election and the Euro Championships last year. Circulation revenues at News UK were down 14% or modestly year over year in local currency, primarily due to the lower print volume and no newsstand price increase at the sum this year as compared to the prior year, partially offset by growth at The Times. Trends at The Times remain positive with print volumes up low single digits this quarter. As Robert mentioned, digital subscribers at The Times and The Sunday Times is up over 10% this quarter versus the last year to 201,000.
At the sum, the average monthly unique users reached 81,000,000 in the 4th quarter, more than doubling versus the prior year and hitting a record of 85,000,000 in June as we continue to build audience to drive and improve monetization. Finally, at News America Marketing, revenues were down 8%, partially related to the shift in timing of in store products as mentioned last quarter and 2 fewer in search versus the prior year. Turning to the Book Publishing segment. Revenues for the quarter decreased 6% to $407,000,000 mostly due to the 53rd week, negative impact from foreign currency fluctuations and declines in the children's division, which faced a difficult prior year comparative. Segment EBITDA decreased 22 percent to $39,000,000 due to lower revenues, higher compensation expense and write offs related to a few new releases this year.
Titles to highlight this quarter include Michael Crichton's Dragon Teeth as well as carryover sales from JD Vance's Hillbilly Elegy and Sarah Young's Jesus Always. Total digital revenues for the quarter were 20% of consumer revenues compared to 19% in the prior year due to strength in digital audio. In Digital Real Estate Services, total segment revenues increased $22,000,000 or 10 percent to $251,000,000 and adjusted revenues increased 16%, which excludes the impact from the divestment of REA's European business and News Tiger Lead as well as currency impact and acquisitions. Total reported segment EBITDA was $87,000,000 versus $175,000,000 last year, with last year reflecting the gain from the settlement with Zillow. Excluding the Zillow settlement, acquisitions, divestments and currency movements, adjusted segment EBITDA growth was 67%.
REA Group revenues grew 7% due to improved product mix, including higher penetration for Premier All and higher yields. The growth was partially offset by $10,000,000 or 8% decline in revenue resulting from the divestment of the European businesses. Similar to last quarter, REA will report results that present Europe as discontinued operations, so you will see a larger than usual variance this quarter between our reported revenue growth than in the past. Their call will commence shortly after the conclusion of this call. REA recently REA recently acquired a majority stake in SmartLine, one of the leading mortgage brokers in Australia and entered into a strategic partnership with the National Australia Bank.
Part of REA's strategy is to integrate property and finance search to better capture value for lead volume. Move revenues rose approximately 10% to $108,000,000 versus the prior year, again driven by very strong performance from connections to buyers, which is benefiting from higher lead volume and improved pricing optimization and higher non listing media revenues. Tiger Lead, which was divested in November, contributed $4,000,000 in the prior year and the 53rd week revenue contribution was $6,000,000 Excluding those items, revenue growth would have been approximately 23%. Realtor grew customers and yields while also posting accelerated bleed volume. As expected, Realtor contributed to segment EBITDA this quarter and for the full year, and we expect to build on that momentum in fiscal 2018.
Average monthly unique user growth at realtor.com remains strong, up 9% year over year to $58,000,000 in the quarter. In Cable Network Programming, revenues decreased $7,000,000 or 5% compared to the prior year quarter due to the $10,000,000 impact from the 53rd week in the prior year and lower subscriber revenues, mostly offset by the addition of the Australian News Channel, the operator of Australia's Sky News Network and favorable foreign currency fluctuations. Segment EBITDA in the quarter rose 4% to $24,000,000 driven by lower programming costs. With respect to earnings from affiliates, equity losses were $19,000,000 this quarter compared to equity income of $5,000,000 last year. Our equity loss pickup this quarter included an $11,000,000 negative impact related to a change in the fair value of Foxtel's investment in the TEN network, which has moved into voluntary administration and a further $3,000,000 loss related to Foxtel's Presto wind down.
Both numbers reflect our 50% share. Foxtel revenues for the quarter declined 3% to $600,000,000 EBITDA decreased 9% to $150,000,000 and was down 10% in local currency due to the decrease in revenue and higher programming costs, principally related to the new AFL contract. Regarding its operating metrics, Foxtel ended the quarter with 2,800,000 total subscribers, which was lower than the prior year, primarily due to the shutdown of Presto. In the Q4, Foxtel Play was relaunched as Foxtel Now, which was supported by a new marketing campaign alongside the relaunch of the Foxtel brand. Including Foxtel Now, total subscribers increased modestly versus the Q3.
In the coming months, Foxtel plans to launch an IP dedicated box, which will include a tuner for access to free to air along with enhanced guide and user interface. In the 4th quarter, cable and satellite churn improved to 13.3% from 14% last year, the 1st year over year improvement since the Q2 of last year. Cable and satellite ARPU for the quarter was down approximately 3% to around 1,000,000,000 full year fiscal 2017, capital expenditures from continuing operations were flat at $256,000,000 Heading into the new fiscal year, there are a few points I would like to note. At News and Information Services, overall ad trends at this point for our key mastheads remained stable with the Q4, although we have seen a slight improvement at Dow Jones. The Q1 should benefit from the increased subscription prices at Dow Jones that I mentioned earlier as well as increased cover prices in the U.
K. And Australia. We assumed continued print declines in fiscal 2018, but we'll aggressively seek out cost reductions. Dow Jones will continue with their 2020 program and the Australian business continues to transform its cost base as it reinvests the digital growth. FOX Sports Australia will face an incremental Australian dollars AUD30 1,000,000 to AUD40 1,000,000 in higher rights costs, mostly related to the new NRL contract.
We expect to offset much of that from operating efficiencies and a higher affiliate revenue. On Book Publishing, overall trends remain favorable with digital contribution relatively stable. The pipeline for the year looks strong with releases from key authors such as Ree Drummond, Daniel Silver, Karen Slaughter, Chip and Jo Agains, Bernard Cornwell, Victoria Aviard, Erin Hunter and Donna Hay. At Digital Real Estate Services, we continue to expect strong revenue and EBITDA contribution from both REA and Move. At Move, we are pleased with the progress at realtor.com, particularly the revenue improvement in the second half of fiscal 2017 and want to build on that momentum this year.
We will continue to roll out our advantage product, our listing agent offering to the balance of our customers in the first half of the year and remain focused on further site enhancements to drive audience growth. REA should benefit from higher pricing, continued penetration of listing depth products and increased revenue from the expansion into mortgage brokering for which the company has provided some guidance. Given these trends, we expect to see improvement in the Q1 versus the prior year. With that, let me hand it over to the operator for Q and A.
Thank you. And we will take our first question from John Janis with Jefferies. Please go ahead.
Hi, John. Thank you. Can you talk
a little bit more about Digital Subs and The Wall Street Journal? As you had a version of the news cycle from the election and the price increases kick in, do you expect continued growth? Or are you seeing a slowdown? I know it's early. And with the increased engagement, to what extent are you seeing incremental demand from advertisers?
John, indeed we're continuing to see strong digital growth. And I think you need to understand that there are really for the Wall Street Journal, 2 parts to that growth. 1 is getting in the initial wsj.com subscription. And secondly, developing products that allow us to upsell premium customers to premium products, which obviously has far more elasticity and and a greater premium profile. And so that is continuing well.
I think it's fair to say on the digital advertising front that in the last half of the fiscal that we didn't see the growth that we wanted. I think we have to be candid about that. There have been some changes made in that department under the leadership of Will Lewis in recent months. And we're confident that you will see, as you suggest, an improvement in advertising, which is coordinated indeed with the improvement in digital audience.
Thanks, John. Operator, we'll take our next question, please.
Thank you. We'll go to Kate Hannon with Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.
Good morning, Robert. Good morning, Susan. Just on the move performance in the quarter and heading into FY 'eighteen, I'm wondering if you could give us a sense of the level of investment in that business into 'eighteen And then a sense of the EBITDA contribution it made in the Q4, please?
Well, Kane, clearly, in the way that Susan and I have described with direct comparisons difficult, It certainly was EBITDA positive as we indicated it would be and we were very happy with the progress there. I think what was particularly reassuring was and it should be so for investors at the beginning of the year, we said we'd see slow growth in Q1 and Q2, and we said it would accelerate in Q3 and Q4. And that is indeed what happened. And we like the momentum that we've achieved going into this current year. As Susan mentioned, the underlying revenue growth was 23%.
But look, we're not for a second complacent. We are pushing Ryan and the team very hard at Realtor because we believe that they have a tremendous opportunity for growth in what is still an emerging e market.
Thank you, Kane. Operator, we'll take our next question.
Thank you. We'll go to Ansho Raykovski with Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead.
Hi, Robert. Hi, Susan. My question is for Susan, given that you've been in the role now for a number of months. Just thinking your perspective on capital management within the business and whether you feel that they are fair there are opportunities to deploy that capital to acquire further assets?
Thanks, Encho. My view is it's important to be balanced between reinvestment and shareholder returns, but we are focused on reinvestment for the long term that will drive shareholder value. As I've already said in previous calls, we'll continue to monitor all our actions, but that's effectively what we'll be looking at.
Thank you. And Joe, operator, we'll take our next question please.
Thank you. We will go next to Alan Gould with Rosenblatt Securities. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Robert, I've got
a question for you regarding the comments Jeff Bezos made at the recent newspaper conference talking about the strength of the paper business that if you invested in it, you could grow the businesses. Is that only for the big national papers? What can we do to, in a quicker way, stop the newspaper EBITDA from its continual declines?
Well, I think I was with Jeff at that conference and I agreed with every word he said at least about newspapers. There's no doubt that there is potential for growth really across the spectrum. Clearly, with a paper like The Australian or The Wall Street Journal or The Times, given the demographic, there is already strong digital growth. But actually, for our other papers, our other masters as well, there is potential. But it is dependent upon broader changes in the content ecosystem, which is why we've been so insistent that the large digital platforms need to take responsibility for content.
It's not just about accounting, it's also about accountability. So we will continue to push for a subscription mechanic that makes sense for them, but certainly makes sense for newspaper mastheads and that will frankly benefit us. It will benefit other players in the industry, but we have full confidence in what I would regard as the fact that our journalism is superior, which of itself will allow our papers to charge a premium.
Thanks, Alan. Operator, we'll take our next question, please.
Thank you. We'll go next to Tim Nollen with Macquarie. Please go ahead.
Hi,
thanks. I wonder, Robert, if you could please comment on the underlying ad market. I think you did give a mention that it seems to be improving a little bit into the second half of the calendar year here. But any comments on advertisers thinking in terms of perhaps putting a little bit more money into, let's call it, traditional media versus digital media, if it can be stated that way, Just because we've had a lot of mixed results from a lot of media companies and ad agencies in their Q2 calendar years, I'm just curious what your underlying sentiment is on ad spending, please?
Yes. I think it's fair to say that not only media companies are under pressure, ad agencies are under pressure because there's no doubt many clients are unhappy with some of the digital companies that they keep. And therefore, we firmly believe that premium products and premium audiences will be important almost regardless of the medium. What we're certainly seeing across most of our properties is in The Wall Street Journal aside, as I mentioned earlier, an increase in digital ad growth. And the potential, for example, in the U.
K. With The Sun, where you've had an exponential increase in its digital audience and now we're improving engagement levels, is obviously real. But that shouldn't take away from the potential of some of what is referred to as the traditional print products. For example, the WSJ Magazine Spring Edition this autumn will have a record amount of advertising in it. So that of itself shows the importance of print as a platform, but it all depends on the quality of content, the reliability of the environment and the level of engagement.
And I think, Tim, just to add something from me as well. On The Australian newspaper, given the great growth that he'd have seen from a subscriber perspective as well, it's actually seen print advertising increase year over year, which is quite unusual in this particular environment. But I think notwithstanding that, it is still very poor visibility, and it remains very difficult to predict exactly what those trends will be going forward.
Thanks, Tim. Kevin, we'll take our next question please.
Thank you. Our next question will come from Brian Han with Morningstar. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Robert or Susan, what percentage of News and Information division revenue is generated from News America Marketing? And also the $175,000,000 in other division losses, can you please shed some light on how much of that is from operating business losses and how much of it is from just corporate overheads?
So on the NAND numbers, we don't call out the NAND numbers separately in relation to revenue. So we haven't given those before in the past. So we're not going to give those going forward. In relation to the $175,000,000 in other that really has the head office costs that sit within those numbers. So that makes up the bulk of that number.
Operator, we'll take our next question please.
Thank you. We'll go next to Craig Huber with Huber Research Partners. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Can you tell us please what your cost cutting plans are through U. K. Papers in Australia? If you gave it for The Wall Street Journal, will those two numbers be at the end of annualized basis at the end of fiscal 2018?
And also curious, what is Move.com's EBITDA in the quarter we just finished? Thank you.
So just in relation to the cost targets, the only number we've actually given out The Wall Street Journal's number which was $100,000,000 annualized by the end of fiscal 2018. In relation to the Australian newspapers, we haven't given out the number. We did say that they delivered $40,000,000 Aussie dollars of cost savings in last financial year. We would expect it to be at least that in the coming year, albeit we did also mention that they'll be reinvesting for growth. And across the U.
K. News cases, they also have fairly aggressive cost targets in there, though we haven't quantified those numbers publicly. In relation to the types of activities that they're looking at, they're focusing predominantly on, I guess, the central type costs and non content related costs. I mean, we continue to believe that we have to invest in our content in order to drive our products going forward. So we really are looking at any other sort of back office costs or centralized costs that we can have a look at going forward.
Craig, it's Robert here. On Move or realtor.com as we refer to it, there is absolutely no doubt it was EBITDA positive when you look at the appropriate comparables. It is on a very positive track. What we're particularly emphasizing at this stage given the phase of the growth of the market is revenue and audience growth and we are confident you'll see both this year. Thanks, Greg.
Kevin, we'll take our next questions, please.
Thank you. We'll go to Raymond Tong with Evans and Partners. Please go ahead.
Good morning, Robert and Susan. Just wondering whether you can talk about the Robert and Susan. Just wondering whether you can talk about the strategic priorities for Foxtel in the medium term. Is it still sort of driving the subscriber growth over short term profitability?
Ramin, Robert here. Look, we're pleased with the launch of Foxtel now. The programming lineup, in particular Game of Thrones, has obviously made a difference. The business itself is changing in its character and will continue to change in a way that we think is positive. There's no doubt that the lineup of rights that we have at Foxtel and FOX Sports in the realm of sports rights, whether it be Rugby League or Aussie Rules or A League Soccer is impressive.
And we understand that that is a market that is changing and that the will be quite possibly more competition for rights in the future. But that was why we took the strategic decision to buy those rights long ahead because that the upheaval in the market was obvious at that time and we have full confidence in the future of both Foxtel and FOX Sports.
Thank you. Kevin, we'll take our next question please.
At this time, there are no further questions. I'll turn the conference back over to Mr. Mike Florin for any additional or closing comments.
Great. Thank you, Kevin. Thank you all for participating today. Have a great day.
Ladies and gentlemen, that does conclude today's conference. We thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.