View all newsletters
Sign up for our free email newsletters

Fighting for quality news media in the digital age.

  1. News
January 9, 2019updated 30 Sep 2022 7:19am

Times swings into black as Sun’s pre-tax losses more than triple

By Freddy Mayhew

The publisher of the Sun and the Sun on Sunday has more than tripled its pre-tax losses to £91.2m in 2018, while News UK stablemate Times Newspapers has swung into the black.

News Group Newspapers saw turnover fall 5 per cent year-on-year to £401.4m in the year to 1 July 2018, with an adjusted operating loss of £64.6m, down from a £7.7m loss on the year before.

Its earnings (EBITDA) swung from a profit of £13.7m in 2017 to a loss of £35m in 2018.

In contrast, the Times and Sunday Times publisher made a pre-tax profit of £9.6m in 2018, up from a loss of £6.5m the year before.

Turnover was up 2 per cent year-on-year at the Times, to £326.4m, with adjusted operating profit at £13m. Its earnings (EBITDA) were up from a £27m loss to a £17m profit.

The Sun has the largest monthly reach of any UK national newsbrand across print and online and remains the UK’s best-selling daily newspaper. Unlike the Times.co.uk, its website remains free to access.

NGN said the decline in turnover in 2018 was “primarily driven by the continuing industry-wide decline in print newspaper circulation in the popular segment”.

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

But the group said total advertising revenue for the year increased for the first time in seven years, with continuing declines in print “more than offset by growth in digital advertising”.

Digital growth was underpinned by a continuing increase in online reach following the relaunch of thesun.co.uk website in June 2016 as well as the relaunch of the new Sun Mobile app in February 2018, NGN said.

It also revealed its Sun Savers scheme, which rewards loyal readers with £5 cash back for every 28 codes scanned in papers, had turned more than 700,000 “previously anonymous print readers” into known Sun Savers customers in the year since it was set up in June 2017.

In a statement alongside its full-year accounts, filed with Companies House, The Times said its increased turnover was “underpinned by growth in digital subscription and digital advertising revenues”

This was supported by cover price rises that “more than offset continuing industry-wide declines in print volumes and print advertising”, it said.

The Times titles surpassed half-a-million subscribers in 2018. Subscriber numbers grew by 55,000 over the year, the second biggest jump since a paywall was introduced in 2010.

Looking ahead to the coming year, the publisher said digital was a “key focus”, where it would “look to embed digital into every aspect of content production, including storytelling, artificial intelligence and new formats”.

Growing digital subscriptions also “remains key to the ongoing success” of Times Newspapers, it said, with an aim to “drive deeper engagement by offering more tailored product to subscribers”.

The accounts show that Times Newspapers spent £1.1m on redundancies in 2018 as part of a workforce restructure “to match the requirements of the business”.

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