Welcome to News Corp's First Quarter Fiscal 2027 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 first quarter 2027 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 open with 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 will pass over to Robert Thomson for some opening comments.
Thank you, Mike. Following a year of record revenue and record profitability in fiscal 2026, we began the new fiscal year with a first quarter revenue 6% higher than prior year at $2.3 billion, while total segment EBITDA surged 19% to $403 million. Our positive results were bolstered by strong performances across our three growth engines, Dow Jones, Digital Real Estate Services, and Book Publishing, which saw a collective segment EBITDA increase of 24% compared to the prior year, even though economic conditions were volatile with conflict in the Middle East, tariff turbulence, and interest rate increases. Our margin for the quarter was 17.7% compared to 15.9% in the second quarter last year, whilst our earnings per share were $0.29 compared to $0.20 a year ago, and adjusted EPS were $0.28 compared to $0.22.
The 19% increase in total segment EBITDA marked 14 consecutive quarters of growth, and we have also reported 13 consecutive quarters of year-on-year revenue increases on a continuing operations basis. Our company has been transformed over the past decade of the digital age, and we believe the business is primed for further growth in the age of AI, when trusted sources will inevitably become more valuable and consumers and companies will be able to prompt agents to seek out those sources. In the agentic age, individual agents will be potentially free of the political bias and media myopia that characterize some old-school digital aggregators and will seek out sources that provide tangible value. We are traversing an era that rapidly exposes the ephemeral, but which rewards companies with a cogent and coherent tech trajectory.
Business is ultimately transactional, and digital dross, superficial slop, is not the concrete insight sought by companies or the brilliant books sought by readers or property intelligence sought by families making the most important investment, buying a home. We have network nous, meaning that those three growth areas are clearly more than the sum of their prosperous parts. In the U.S., we have just experienced an election, which has inevitably prompted a politicization of everything from water to wattage. At least there has been more focus on the integrity of inputs necessary in the AI age, and we believe our content is an absolutely essential input. Often lost in the debate is that intelligent content is actually the essence of AI. Infrastructure is not AI. Silicon is not AI. Water is not AI. These are but necessary components. AI runs on created content, and we create that core intelligence.
That intelligence is dependent on the content that our journalists, our writers, our teams across the world, and across cultures create, day after day, minute after minute. So we as a company play a crucial role in creating the inputs that are contributing to the extraordinary outputs that people are experiencing, the outputs enhancing so much of the personal and of the professional. They are value-added experiences, and we are creating that core value, and we do so with core values. As for the AI platforms, we note that Anthropic has signaled, with much fanfare, its intent to IPO in the near future. Publishers have serious concerns about Anthropic's unlicensed use of copyrighted content to power its AI tools. Consistent with our woo and sue strategy, we remain vigilant about protecting our IP.
We will not tolerate any abuse of our IP, and more broadly, the undermining of the very value of creation and creativity in our society. As we journey, and some other people stumble, into the AI age, News Corp is no peripheral participant. We are a primary provider of the essential ingredients AI companies need to operate thoughtfully and productively. We are glad to have principal partners in OpenAI and Meta and others who appreciate the crucial role our inputs play. So we remain optimistic that other platforms will choose compensation over confiscation, principle over plunder, and that they will understand that digital despoilment is inimical to their own interests. Turning to our segments.
Dow Jones once again posted robust results, with first quarter revenue rising 8% year-on-year to $630 million, while EBITDA increased 11% to $160 million, marking the 15th consecutive quarter of year-on-year EBITDA growth. Margin expanded by 80 basis points to 25.4% compared to the prior year, and we remain focused on building our high-margin professional information business. The Risk & Compliance business increased revenue 11% over the prior year, and the recent spate of painful fines for prominent financial institutions highlights the need to minimize risk and maximize compliance. The Dow Jones Energy business expanded 8% despite the Middle East conflict that inevitably had an impact on our activities. The team has pivoted savvily in the circumstances, and we are seeing a potent revenue pipeline that we expect will become more obvious later in the year.
The news business saw circulation revenue expand 4% for the first quarter versus prior year, with digital volumes rising 10% to average nearly 6.5 million subscriptions during the period. Advertising demand, particularly across tech and finance, helped fuel 9% ad revenue growth for the period overall, with digital advertising achieving double-digit growth for the fourth consecutive quarter at 12%. Almar and the Dow Jones team remain firmly on track to reach the $1 billion EBITDA target that was outlined at the Dow Jones investor briefing earlier this year. Speaking of investor briefings, Cam McIntyre and the REA leadership team just held a particularly successful investor day in Australia and highlighted the company's revenue resilience and growth potential, even in a property market experiencing short-term disruption.
Core messages were that AI should be an accelerator for growth, providing enhanced services for agents, sellers, and buyers, and that the company has increased yield markedly even in times of laggardly listings growth and elevated interest rates. Overall, in the Digital Real Estate Services segment, revenues for the first quarter rose 10% to $529 million, and EBITDA surged 34% to $212 million, as REA and Realtor.com both showed their structural strength in markets that were challenged. That excellent performance obviously augurs well for our company when market conditions become less hostile and more auspicious. At REA, revenues rose 13%, benefiting from high yield and the positive impact of a stronger currency, despite a 2% national decline in listings.
The team continued to sharpen their strategic focus by completing the sale of REA India to Aurum and by agreeing to take a 35% stake in Distilled, the leading multi-vertical digital marketplace in Ireland, where our company has a strong media presence and will be able to deploy that network to enhance the business. In the U.S., Realtor.com defied a depressed market, posting its eighth consecutive quarter of top-line revenue growth at 5% and achieving considerable gains in profitability. In a housing market constrained by 7%+ mortgage rates, Damian and the team have exhibited exceptional discipline in their operational focus and AI integration, and that approach has converted revenue growth into meaningful bottom-line expansion.
They also continue to lead the industry in engagement, with 4.9 visits per unique user in Q1, according to Comscore, well above their competitors, while Realtor.com remains the leading publisher of residential real estate news in the world's largest property market. In Book Publishing, revenues for the first quarter rose 9% to $582 million, while profitability surged 29% to $75 million, and our margins rose to 12.9% compared to 10.9% in the prior year. Audiobooks delivered a sterling performance, with 13% year-on-year growth, propelled by our global partnership with Spotify and by a focus on enhancing audio as a higher-yielding listening event.
We had a plethora of successful titles, including Ann Patchett's "Whistler," Rebecca Kuang's "Taipei Story," and Daniel Silva's "Ransom." We were delighted to reincarnate one of Agatha Christie's most indomitable and incorrigible characters, Miss Marple, thanks to the talented Lucy Foley in the intriguing novel "Murder at the Grand Alpine Hotel." The enduring breadth of our catalog will be on full display in the second quarter, including the knockout success of Sylvester Stallone's "The Steps," which debuted as a number one bestseller at the end of September. We are excited about titles from Brian Kilmeade, Barbara Kingsolver, and Veronica Roth, as well as Greta Gerwig's much-awaited adaptation of "The Magician's Nephew," the C.S. Lewis classic, which should benefit from extensive promotion ahead of the February premiere. In the meantime, the late great Jeffrey Archer has had posthumous success with "Adam and Eve," which became an immediate bestseller.
News Media continues to navigate complex market pressures, including a challenging advertising environment and the ongoing evolution of the search and social algorithm landscape. As mentioned earlier, that search landscape will change dramatically with the advent of agentic AI. Revenues for the segment declined slightly versus prior year to $540 million. While EBITDA was $18 million for the quarter, which included modest investments in both the California Post and News24, our Australian-based broadcast network, whose global reach has expanded rapidly. In the U.K., The Times grew digital subscribers by 7% to finish the quarter with 686,000 subs, while advertising at talkSPORT benefited from vibrant streaming growth, thanks in part to the World Cup. Advertising would have benefited further had England, as it should have, made the final. In Australia, total digital subscribers held at 1.16 million, while digital ARPU remained resilient.
The New York Post is preparing to celebrate a notable milestone later this year, the 225th anniversary of its founding by Alexander Hamilton. It has rarely been in such strong financial shape, having previously suffered decades of losses before the recent turnaround, which was built on a still sturdy print subscription business and the material expansion of digital revenues. Our strong first quarter performance is a testament to the company's collective focus on higher margins and our determination to develop digital businesses with recurring revenues and promising prospects. These qualities have clearly set us far apart from other media companies, or what you might call trad media, and some of that trad media has indeed become tragic media. At News Corp, we remain committed to driving growth and profitability while exercising judicious cost discipline and prudent capital stewardship with the clear goal of creating value for all our shareholders.
In this quest, we are grateful for the astute leadership of our Chair, Lachlan Murdoch, and our board of directors. We also recognize the enduring resonance of our Chairman Emeritus, Rupert Murdoch, and laud the commitment and creativity of our employees around the world. Now, I turn to our Chief Financial Officer, Lavanya Chandrashekar, for further insight into an excellent quarter for the company.
Thank you, Robert, and good afternoon to everyone. Our first quarter results demonstrate the continued strength and resiliency of the business and its consistent earnings power. We delivered another quarter of double-digit profit growth with increased profit margins led by our core growth engines. We achieved record first quarter profitability, marking our 14th consecutive quarter of year-over-year total segment EBITDA growth on a continuing operations basis. Our focus on operational efficiency has driven meaningful margin expansion, and we continue to see substantial runway for further improvement. We have posted updated slides highlighting our first quarter performance, along with the trending schedule to the investor relations section of the newscorp.com website.
As I mentioned last quarter, while we believe many in the investment community appreciate that News Corp has a very valuable portfolio of assets and trades at a discount to net asset value, with which we certainly agree, we are also continuing to deliver profit growth at a faster rate than most companies in our peer group, including those in the information services sector. We have demonstrated strong earnings and free cash flow power, built-in financial flexibility, and a clear focus on maximizing value. Turning to the quarter. Revenue for the quarter were $2.3 billion, up 6% year-over-year, and total segment EBITDA was $403 million, up 19%. Margins expanded by 180 basis points to 17.7%. Our core growth engines, Dow Jones, Digital Real Estate Services, and Book Publishing, continued to generate outsized performance and collectively grew segment EBITDA by 24% this quarter.
On an adjusted basis, revenue increased 4% and total segment EBITDA grew 13%. Earnings per share were $0.29 compared to $0.20 in the prior year. Adjusted EPS were $0.28, up from $0.22. Turning to Dow Jones. This was a record first quarter with revenues of $630 million, growing 8% year-over-year. Digital revenues represented 85% of total segment revenue, up from 84% in the prior year. Risk & Compliance revenues increased 11% to $104 million, supported by customer growth, product expansion, and pricing. We continue to see growth in both feeds and platform revenue, including for value-added solutions such as advanced screening and monitoring and investigative research. The majority of incremental revenue growth this quarter was driven by higher volume and product upsells.
At Dow Jones Energy, as anticipated, revenues grew 8% to $79 million, improving from the prior quarter rate, supported by an improved pipeline of new business. We had the highest first quarter increase in net new bookings since the acquisition in fiscal 2022. Customer retention remains very strong at approximately 90%. Other information services revenues declined 4%, lapping the resolution of a customer dispute in the prior year. Overall, professional information business revenues increased 5%. In the news business, circulation revenues grew 4%, while digital circulation increased 6%. We continue to optimize yield and posted accelerated year-over-year and quarter-over-quarter growth in digital direct subscription ARPU and expect further improvements in fiscal 2027. Digital circulation represented 76% of total circulation revenue compared to 75% in the prior year.
Digital-only subscription grew 10% year-over-year to nearly 6.5 million, with sequential net adds of approximately 219,000, benefiting from the timing of enterprise subscription deals and marked the highest sequential net adds in almost three years. Advertising revenue increased 9% to $93 million, driven by 12% growth in digital advertising, while print grew 4%, both improving from the prior quarter rate. Growth was led by strong performance in the technology and finance categories. Digital advertising represented 70% of total advertising revenue, up 2 percentage points from the prior year. Dow Jones segment EBITDA for the quarter grew a healthy 11% to $160 million, with margins increasing to 25.4%, improving by 80 basis points versus the prior year. Turning to Digital Real Estate. Segment revenues were $529 million, up 10% reported and 4% on an adjusted basis.
Segment EBITDA was $212 million, up 34% reported and 23% on an adjusted basis, benefiting from strong profit contributions at both REA and at Realtor.com. REA revenue grew 13% and 5% in constant currency. Growth was driven by the Australian residential business, led by price increases, increased depth penetration, and growth in add-on products, resulting in 8% growth in yield or 14% growth in controllable yield. The growth was partially offset by lower listing volumes and geo mix. National new buy listings in the quarter fell 2%, with Sydney and Melbourne down 16%. Very importantly, realestate.com.au averaged 11.5 million monthly unique visitors and 137 million monthly visits for the quarter, nearly 100 million more than the nearest competitor. As a reminder, News Corp's results include the revenue and losses from REA India this quarter.
The divestiture of this business closed in September, and our results starting the second quarter will no longer include REA India. During the quarter, REA announced an agreement to take a 35% stake in Distilled, which is the leading multi-vertical digital marketplace operator across Ireland and Northern Ireland, and owner of Ireland's number one property portal, Daft.ie. The investment is expected to be AUD 409 million, or approximately $290 million. Please refer to REA's earnings release for more details. The presentation materials and a webcast from their recent investor day are posted on REA's website for your reference. In the U.S., Realtor.com continued to make very strong progress this quarter despite the difficult U.S. property market conditions, with revenues rising 5% to $160 million, driven by strong execution and lapping tougher year-ago comparisons.
And importantly, realtor.com continues to demonstrate improved profitability as it realizes further cost efficiencies through the integration of AI into its workflow. Realtor.com has now grown revenues eight straight quarters, an impressive trend given the macro environment. This quarter, revenue performance was driven by the growth in RealPro Select, its premium marketing solution for top-performing agents and teams. Strong demand for and increased penetration of RealPro Select continued to drive higher yields, complemented by a strategic focus on higher-priced listings, which offer greater monetization potential. We continued to diversify the revenues with adjacencies, comprising new homes, rentals, and sellers, increasing to 23% of revenues. Lead volume declined 11%, impacted by the broader market conditions, coupled with the repositioning of customer acquisitions to higher quality and higher value leads. Importantly, revenue per existing home sold, a proxy for yield, rose 25% compared to quarter four 2022.
Based on Comscore for the first quarter, Realtor.com continues to lead the industry in engagement with 4.9 visits per unique user, increasing 8% year-over-year, and maintaining substantial leads over Redfin and Homes.com. Turning to Book Publishing. HarperCollins posted another strong quarter. Revenues grew 9% to $582 million, outperforming recent industry trends. Segment EBITDA was $75 million, up 29% year-over-year, driven by the strong top-line performance and lapping the bad debt write-off related to an independent distributor in the prior year. On an adjusted basis, revenue and EBITDA increased 8% and 29% respectively. Costs increased 7% this quarter, driven by higher royalties, manufacturing, and marketing expenses related to new front list releases. Results were driven by strong demand for new releases in general trade and children's.
Digital revenue at HarperCollins grew 6%, with titles such as Ann Patchett's "Whistler" driving strong growth at both Spotify and Audible, leading to a 13% increase in revenue from audiobooks. This quarter, the backlist contributed 66% of consumer revenues compared to 65% last year. At this time, we continue to anticipate the commencement of the Anthropic settlement payments in the near term. At News Media, revenues declined 1% to $540 million, as challenging advertising conditions were partially offset by currency favorability of the Australian dollar. Segment EBITDA was $18 million, down $12 million year-over-year, which included disciplined investment at the New York Post and tougher trading conditions. Turning to free cash flow. First quarter free cash flow was impacted by the timing of working capital and capital spending.
We continue to be focused on driving strong free cash flow, and as a reminder, our free cash flow generation tends to be second half-weighted due to seasonality. Turning to the outlook. At Dow Jones, we expect continued strong revenue performance, and we will support this growth with disciplined reinvestment and expect continued margin expansion. REA continues to be focused on driving value in the marketplace through new offerings, product enhancements, and adjacencies while pursuing cost efficiencies. October listings were down 13% year-over-year, but down 8% removing the impact of one less working day. At Realtor.com, despite difficult housing conditions due to higher rates, we remain focused on driving continued revenue growth and scaling profitability. At Book Publishing, overall trends remain healthy. Like the first quarter, we expect higher costs to support a strong frontlist program.
At News Media, we expect broadly similar trends to quarter one, including modest incremental costs compared to the prior year related to the continued rollout of the California Post. With that, I'll turn it over to the operator for Q&A.
Thank you. We will now start the Q&A session. Please limit your questions to one per participant. If you have joined via the Zoom application, please use the raise hand functionality to ask a question. If you have joined via the audio line, please press star nine. Questions will be answered in the order they are received. We will now pause a moment to assemble the queue. Our first question comes from Brent Penter with Raymond James. Please unmute yourself to ask a question.
Hey, everyone. Thanks for taking the questions. Just a couple on AI. Robert, you talked about the value of your content as an AI input. As you evaluate the AI deals that you've done so far, how do you think about the value you're getting out of those deals relative to a potential opportunity cost, and what have you learned from those deals? Then you also quickly mentioned agentic AI. So just as MCP becomes a bigger topic, how do you feel you're positioned for people using agentic AI to manage their consumer subscriptions?
Brent, first of all, we feel we're very well-positioned in the agentic age, and that agents themselves will be seeking out individual stories and servicing them, which is certainly more beneficial to us than what you might call egregious aggregation. We're in active negotiation on several fronts, and those talks with AI platforms are progressing well. Clearly, we can't reveal any details of confidential deals, but once they are concluded, you'll be able to see the impact in our accounts very clearly. There's no doubt we already have important partnerships with OpenAI and Meta, and apart from the other large players, which you might call horizontal platforms, we're in discussion with specialist verticals who need our content and our immediacy to freshen their models and create compelling products for their specialist clients.
As for litigation, we do expect the first tranche of the $1.5 billion Anthropic settlement to be received in the near term, as Lavanya indicated, and we still have issues with Anthropic. We also have cases against the perplexing Perplexity and the not-so-brave Brave. I noticed The New York Times has also brought an action against Brave this week. I would emphasize that not only are we pursuing companies that steal our content, but also taking aim at those companies which knowingly purchase that purloined content. They are obviously receiving stolen goods and should cease and desist. As for the subscription cancellation issue, look, if making it difficult for subscribers to cancel is a core part of your strategy, then clearly you have a problem and you need a new strategy.
You should be making it impossible for subscribers, that is, to cancel by exceeding their expectations and delivering quality journalism that provides unique insights and absolute value, and that is our strategy.
Thank you, Brent. Mariana.
Thank you.
We will take our next... Thanks, Brent. Mariana, we will take our next question, please.
Our next question comes from Ailsa Lei with UBS. Please unmute yourself to ask a question.
Morning, Robert, and morning, Lavanya. Thank you for taking questions. My question is on the higher year-on-year CapEx. If you could please give more color on what drove the spend and how we should be thinking about the rest of FY 2027. Thanks.
Sure, Ailsa. Thank you for the question. The CapEx increase in this quarter was entirely driven by timing. We continue to be very confident in our ability to deliver strong free cash flow for the year.
Thank you, Ailsa. Mariana, we will take our next question, please.
Our next question comes from Entcho Raykovski with Evans & Partners. Please unmute yourself to ask a question.
Hi, Robert. Hi, Lavanya. I have also got a question related to free cash flow. I mean, given it was a little bit weaker in the quarter, and I also appreciate there is seasonality, but can you provide a little bit more color around the timing factors which drove the working capital movements in the quarter? So putting CapEx to one side, obviously the operating activities cash was quite a bit lower. So some further color would be appreciated.
Thanks, Entcho. Yes, I will give you a little bit more color. I mean, other than the CapEx timing, the other thing that impacted free cash flow this quarter was the timing of working capital. So what do I mean by the timing of working capital? It's really two things. One is from a revenue perspective, more of our revenue was weighted into the last month of the quarter. That was really good news coming from the strength of both the Dow Jones business as well as HarperCollins. Obviously, that money gets collected in the second quarter. Then the second thing was on a slight increase on inventories at HarperCollins.
Again, this is to, given all of the supply chain issues that people are having, this was really to make sure that we protected our ability to have an outstanding holiday season on HarperCollins. As you said, our cash flow does tend to be more second-half weighted due to seasonality. Free cash flow continues, remains a key focus for us in terms of value expansion, and I am very confident that we will generate strong free cash flow for the year.
Thank you.
Thank you, Entcho. Mariana, we will take our next question, please.
Thank you. As a reminder, if you would like to ask a question, please use the raise hand functionality. Our next question comes from Craig Huber with Huber Research. Please unmute yourself to ask a question.
Oh, great. Thank you. I got a couple questions on AI, if I could, please. Is it possible for you to quantify for us AI cost savings at your company, either at one or two segments or maybe for the whole company? I mean, how significant are AI cost savings for you, right, in like an annual run rate or something like that? Secondly, where are you the most excited about using AI to enhance your products and services? Thank you.
I'll do the first part of your question, Craig. We are not quantifying cost savings. What I will say is that we are focused on driving cost efficiencies in a disciplined manner, always protecting the long-term strength of the business. AI is increasingly becoming a tool and a capability that allows us to do so. I mean, a few examples maybe is what I can give you. One, I mean, obviously in terms of our product development, in terms of engineering, coding, quality testing, et cetera, that is definitely a place where we are seeing our teams are using AI. They are extraordinarily curious about being able to do so. They are doing so in a disciplined and with the right guardrails, but that is driving efficiencies. Customer service is another area where we are definitely driving efficiencies. Also anything which is automated, being able to automate certain data analytics kind of work.
What I would say, stepping back, I would say that we are actually using AI across all of our functions, across all of our business units. You see it in HR operations, you see it in finance operations, you see it in marketing. I mean, this is an extraordinarily curious and driven organization, and the ability to use AI to drive both top and bottom line growth is enormous. I'll hand it off to Robert to talk about the second part.
Yes, Craig. Look, in terms of products, really right across the company, we are talking to each other, creating new experiences, new interfaces for our customers, for our clients. If you look, for example, at Digital Real Estate, AI is going to enhance the real estate experience, not undermine it. We will ensure that we use our understanding of the market, our unique data sets, our unique real estate editorial to leverage AI to the benefit of the customers. That is the guiding principle of both Realtor.com and REA. Those two companies are talking to each other virtually every day about the implementation of new AI applications. Just one other example, one of many other examples, look, AI and HarperCollins and audiobooks. Obviously, we are seeing Spotify innovate, as is Audible.
AI is going to really provide a role in helping to bring books to life through the use of vivid voices and the ability to generate a compelling audio experience that makes the book even more valuable. It really does transform audiobooks. There are so many more choices in reading voices, sound effects, and other techniques and tools and creativity that will bring words to life. Do not forget as well how AI will enable much more cost-effective translations into multiple languages, both in text and audio, and thus reach new audiences and generate new revenue.
Thank you, Craig. Mariana, we will take our next question, please.
Our next question comes from Douglas Wardlaw with JPMorgan. Please unmute yourself to ask a question.
Hi, thanks for taking the question. Robert, we have heard from some publishers and internet platforms this earnings season about the headwinds from search traffic and AI overlays. Your digital ad growth stayed at double digits, so maybe you are seeing something different. Can you speak to engagement trends generally, or just the drivers of your digital advertising growth over the past few quarters?
Oh, Doug, we are very fortunate that our companies are destination sites, and at a couple, we have actually seen recent increases in traffic to some of the larger sites. Our experience is rather different to those sites which rely on what is called evergreen content. That is sites thinking that endless lists or gardening or food would fatten their traffic. Those sites have definitely been on a digital diet in the AI age. The generic does not flourish as synthesis proliferates. The evergreen turned out to be rather seasonal and has been withering on the vine. For example, our larger sites, Realtor.com, REA, Bible Gateway, are different types of experiences. In a net-net, at a monthly level, we have 249 million uniques in the U.S.
It is a huge audience, but it is also a network, 84 million at the New York Post, 66 million at Realtor.com, for example. Hard news, specialist intelligence, unique expertise remain huge traffic drivers, and these really are our strengths. As I say, we do have a particularly potent network effect. For example, realtor.com can drive traffic to Bible Gateway, which can drive traffic to wsj.com and New York Post and vice versa. We have our own circulatory system, which is particularly valuable at this time.
I will just add on, Robert, in terms of ad revenue growth, we did see notable strength at The Wall Street Journal, and really it is coming from both the tech sector as well as the finance sector, and it is the kind of the unique positioning that they are able to get by advertising with the Journal. I would also say that direct traffic at The Wall Street Journal is the predominant source of traffic at The Wall Street Journal, is direct traffic.
Thank you, Doug. Mariana, we will take our next question.
At this time, we have no further questions. I will now hand over to Michael Florin for closing remarks.
Well, thank you, Mariana, and thank you for participating. Have a great day, and we'll talk to you all soon. Take care.