The second quarter's total company organic revenue growth of 7% was the highest in over a decade, and the big three businesses also grew at 7%.
We also continued to execute aggressively on our Change Program and achieved run rate savings of $90 million as of June 30th.
We now forecast total company organic revenue growth between 4% and 4.5% and organic revenue growth for the big three of between 5.5% and 6%.
Total company EBITDA margin is forecast to range between 31% and 32%.
And the big three EBITDA margin is now forecast to be approximately 39%.
And free cash flow is now expected to range between 1.1 and $1.2 billion.
Lastly, today, we announced a new $1.2 billion share buyback program.
If we are able to complete the buyback program this year, we will have returned over $2 billion to shareholders in 2021, including dividends.
Second quarter reported revenues were up 9% with organic revenues up 7%.
Revenue growth was solid for each business segment, including strong growth from our Latin American and Asia and emerging markets businesses, which grew organically more than 20% and 10%, respectively.
Adjusted EBITDA increased 5% and to $502 million, reflecting a margin of 32.7%.
Excluding costs related to the Change Program, the adjusted EBITDA margin was 35.4%.
This strong performance resulted in adjusted earnings per share of $0.48 compared to $0.44 per share in the prior-year period.
As I mentioned, the big three achieved organic revenue growth of 7% for the quarter, a very strong performance.
Legal second-quarter performance was impressive with organic revenue growth of 6%, the highest quarterly growth since 2008, and building on 5% growth for the first quarter.
The U.S. legal market is quite healthy, particularly in small law, where sentiment continues to be strong as attorneys anticipate solid demand over the next 12 months.
First, Westlaw Edge continues to achieve strong sales growth and ended the quarter at 57% ACV penetration compared to 52% at year-end 2020.
We continue to forecast an ACV penetration rate between 50% -- between 60% and 65% by year end.
Third, our government business, which is managed within our legal segment, continues to see good momentum and grew 8% organically.
Organic revenues grew 4%.
Tax and accounting's organic revenues grew 15%, benefiting from a 43% increase in transactional revenues, primarily driven by the year-over-year timing of individual tax filing deadlines.
Recurring revenue growth was also strong at 9%.
Reuters News' organic revenues grew 6% in the quarter, a very good performance, driven by the professionals business, including strong Reuters events growth as it begins to recover from the negative impact from COVID-19 in 2020.
And Global Print organic revenues also grew 6%, partly due to an easier prior-year comparable, but also attributable to a gradual return to office by our customers and higher third-party revenues.
And it also increases our confidence to achieve our 2023 revenue growth target of 5 to 6%.
Our confidence is also increasing as our legal business is now achieving 5%-plus organic growth.
We believe legal has multiple levers to pull to drive organic growth to between 5 and 6% by 2023.
We continue to forecast organic growth for corporates between 7% and 9% by 2023.
And we forecast Tax & Accounting will achieve solid organic revenue growth this year and be able to achieve a growth of 6% to 8% by 2023.
Organic revenues and revenues at constant currency were both up 7% for the quarter.
This marks the fourth consecutive quarter our big three segments have grown at least 5% and represents the highest growth for our big three segments in over a decade.
Legal professionals revenues increased 7%, and organic revenues were up 6%.
Recurring organic revenue grew 6%, and transaction revenues increased 14% due to our Westlaw, Practical Law, and government businesses.
Please note, 60% of Practical Law's revenues are recorded in the legal professionals segment and 40% is recorded in the corporates segment.
Westlaw Edge continued to contribute about 100 basis points to legal's organic revenue growth while continuing to maintain a healthy premium.
And Edge has now been adopted by all U.S. federal government courts, and by courts, in 44 states.
Our government business, which is reported within Legal and includes much of our risk, fraud, and compliance offerings, had a strong quarter with total revenue growth of 10% and organic growth of 8%.
In our corporates segment, total and organic revenues increased 4%, led by recurring organic revenue growth of 5%.
Transactions organic revenue grew 1% due to a difficult prior-year comparison when 4 million of onetime CLEAR revenue was recorded and did not reoccur this year.
And finally, tax and accounting's total and organic revenues grew 15%.
Growth was driven by the Latin American businesses, audit solutions, which includes confirmation, and a 43% increase in transaction revenues resulting from the year-over-year timing of individual tax filing deadlines.
Normalizing for this timing, organic revenues for tax and accounting were up 10% in Q2.
Total and organic revenues increased 6% primarily due to our professional business, which includes Reuters events.
And Global Print total and organic revenues increased 6% in the quarter.
Despite this higher performance, we still forecast full-year revenues to decline between 4% and 7%.
On a consolidated basis, second-quarter total and organic revenues each increased 7%.
Starting on the left side, total company organic revenue for the second quarter of 2021 was up 7% compared to a 2% decline in the second quarter of 2020 due to the impact of COVID-19.
If we look at Q2 2021 performance for the big three, you will see organic revenues increased 7%, a strong performance and well above the 2% performance in Q2 2020.
Total company recurring organic revenues grew 5% in Q2, 210 basis points above Q2 2020.
And the big three recurring organic revenues grew 6%, which was above last year's second quarter growth of 4%.
Starting with the total TR chart on the top left, we estimate third-quarter total and organic revenues will grow between 3.5% and 4%.
The big three total and organic revenues are forecast to grow between 5% and 5.5% in the third quarter.
Big three growth will be slightly depressed due to the timing of tax and accounting's pay-per-return revenues in 2020 that shifted 6 million from Q2 to Q3 due to the delay in the tax filing deadline.
We forecast third-quarter total and organic revenues to grow between 2% and 3%, driven by all Reuters news business lines.
Finally, Global Print third-quarter revenues are expected to decline between 5% and 8%, and we forecast full-year revenues to decline between 4% and 7%.
Adjusted EBITDA for the big three segments was 487 million, up 14% from the prior-year period, and the related margin increased 180 basis points due to strong margin improvement across each of the segments.
Adjusted EBITDA was 35 million, 10 million more than prior-year period, driven by revenue growth, 2020 cost savings initiatives, and timing.
Global Print's adjusted EBITDA was 56 million with a margin of 37.9%, a decline of about 260 basis points due to higher costs and the dilutive impact of lower-margin third-party print revenue.
So in aggregate, total company adjusted EBITDA was 502 million, a 5% increase versus Q2 2020.
The second quarter's adjusted-EBITDA margin was 32.7% and was 35.4% on an underlying basis, excluding costs related to the Change Program.
For the first six months, total company adjusted-EBITDA margin was 34.1%, and the big three segment's adjusted-EBITDA margin was 40.5%.
On an underlying basis, excluding Change Program cost, total company adjusted-EBITDA margin was 35.7%.
And as Steve mentioned, we are increasing our full-year total company guidance for adjusted-EBITDA margin to a range of 31% to 32%, and for the big three segments to approximately 39%.
First, we expect to increase our investment in the Change Program, which will have a negative impact of between 150 to 200 basis points for the total company.
This will dilute the margin between 150 and 200 basis points for the total company and between 200 and 250 basis points for the big three segments.
And finally, savings from the Change Program are forecast to provide a benefit to total company and big three adjusted-EBITDA margin of 100 to 150 basis points.
We believe we have good visibility into the levers at our disposal to achieve our updated full-year margin guidance and are confident in our ability to achieve our target of 31% to 32%.
Adjusted earnings per share was $0.48 per share versus $0.44 per share in the prior-year period, a 9% increase.
Our reported free cash flow was 618 million versus 340 million in the prior-year period, an improvement of 278 million.
Working from the bottom of the page upwards, the cash outflows from discontinued operations component of our free cash flow was 36 million more than the prior-year period.
Also in the first half, we made 28 million of Change Program payments, as compared to Refinitiv-related separation cost of 76 million in the prior-year period.
So if you adjust for these items, comparable free cash flow from continuing operations was 692 million, 311 million better than the prior-year period.
Now an update on our Change Program costs for the second quarter and the rest of 2021.
Spend during the second quarter was within the range provided last quarter at 71 million, including 41 million of opex plus $29 million of capex.
This brings the first-half total spend to 91 million.
We now anticipate spending between 210 and 260 million in the second half, opex plus capex.
For the full year, we expect Change Program spend, opex plus capex to be at the lower end of the range of 300 million to 350 million.
And there is no change in the anticipated split of about 60% opex and 40% capex.
In the second quarter, we achieved 71 million of annual run-rate operating expense savings.
This brings the total annual run-rate operating expense savings up to 90 million for the Change Program.
As a reminder, we anticipate operating expense savings of 600 million by 2023 while reinvesting 200 million back into the business for a net savings of 400 million.
Lastly, we reaffirmed the balance of our full-year 2021 guidance, as well as our 2022 and 2023 guidance previously provided and we remain confident in achieving the targets for all metrics.

Summary:
We also continued to execute aggressively on our Change Program and achieved run rate savings of $90 million as of June 30th.
And free cash flow is now expected to range between 1.1 and $1.2 billion.
Lastly, today, we announced a new $1.2 billion share buyback program.
This strong performance resulted in adjusted earnings per share of $0.48 compared to $0.44 per share in the prior-year period.
Legal professionals revenues increased 7%, and organic revenues were up 6%.
In our corporates segment, total and organic revenues increased 4%, led by recurring organic revenue growth of 5%.
And finally, tax and accounting's total and organic revenues grew 15%.
And Global Print total and organic revenues increased 6% in the quarter.
Despite this higher performance, we still forecast full-year revenues to decline between 4% and 7%.
We forecast third-quarter total and organic revenues to grow between 2% and 3%, driven by all Reuters news business lines.
Finally, Global Print third-quarter revenues are expected to decline between 5% and 8%, and we forecast full-year revenues to decline between 4% and 7%.
Adjusted earnings per share was $0.48 per share versus $0.44 per share in the prior-year period, a 9% increase.
Now an update on our Change Program costs for the second quarter and the rest of 2021.
Spend during the second quarter was within the range provided last quarter at 71 million, including 41 million of opex plus $29 million of capex.
This brings the total annual run-rate operating expense savings up to 90 million for the Change Program.
Lastly, we reaffirmed the balance of our full-year 2021 guidance, as well as our 2022 and 2023 guidance previously provided and we remain confident in achieving the targets for all metrics.