View all newsletters
Sign up for our free email newsletters

Fighting for quality news media in the digital age.

  1. News
June 11, 2021updated 30 Sep 2022 10:21am

The Sun loses £201m before tax as revenues fall in year to June 2020

By Freddy Mayhew

News Group Newspapers, publisher of The Sun titles, has reported a £201m pre-tax loss on turnover of £324m for the year to the end of June 2020.

Revenues are down nearly £100m on the year before (2019: £420m) at the group, which increased its pre-tax losses by more than £130m (2019: £67.8m), according to accounts filed with Companies House in the UK.

NGN is part of Rupert Murdoch’s News UK, which also publishes The Times (accounts filed as Times Newspapers), itself a subsidiary of News Corp, which owns the Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones.

NGN said its business had been “impacted by the ongoing Covid-19 outbreak and the resulting UK lockdown”, with newsstand sales of The Sun and The Sun on Sunday hit by lower levels of daily commuters.

It said the drop in turnover “was primarily due to challenging market conditions with declines in newspaper circulation and print advertising in line with other businesses in the sector and the wider economy”.

Following “changes in market conditions” NGN faced an £84m cash flow impairment, which has seen it write down the carrying value of The Sun titles to nil, down from £112m in 2019.

The group said it had seen a growth in online traffic and digital ad revenues, “driven by deeper engagement and new audiences turning to The Sun Online for reliable advice and entertainment during uncertain times”, which partly offset revenue decline elsewhere in the business.

Content from our partners
How PA Media is helping newspapers make the digital transition
Publishing on the open web is broken, how generative AI could help fix it
Impress: Regulation, arbitration and complaints resolution

The Sun’s Home News Delivery campaign “added a significant number of new customers during the outbreak”, the group said, and despite the challenges of the pandemic lockdown it “never missed an edition”.

Legal fees and damages paid out against claims of phone hacking at the now-defunct News of the World cost NGN £52.3m in 2020, nearly double the year before. Most of the claims have been settled out of court.

NGN had 50 fewer editorial employees on average in 2020 (546) compared with 2019 (605).

Read the full 2020 accounts.

Picture: Reuters/Toby Melville

Topics in this article : ,

Email pged@pressgazette.co.uk to point out mistakes, provide story tips or send in a letter for publication on our "Letters Page" blog

Select and enter your email address Weekly insight into the big strategic issues affecting the future of the news industry. Essential reading for media leaders every Thursday. Your morning brew of news about the world of news from Press Gazette and elsewhere in the media. Sent at around 10am UK time. Our weekly does of strategic insight about the future of news media aimed at US readers. A fortnightly update from the front-line of news and advertising. Aimed at marketers and those involved in the advertising industry.
  • Business owner/co-owner
  • CEO
  • COO
  • CFO
  • CTO
  • Chairperson
  • Non-Exec Director
  • Other C-Suite
  • Managing Director
  • President/Partner
  • Senior Executive/SVP or Corporate VP or equivalent
  • Director or equivalent
  • Group or Senior Manager
  • Head of Department/Function
  • Manager
  • Non-manager
  • Retired
  • Other
Visit our privacy Policy for more information about our services, how New Statesman Media Group may use, process and share your personal data, including information on your rights in respect of your personal data and how you can unsubscribe from future marketing communications.
Thank you

Thanks for subscribing.

Websites in our network