The publisher of The Times and The Sunday Times made an annual after-tax profit of £9.6 million, with improved turnover figures cited as a contributory factor.
Times Newspapers said: “The increase in turnover was underpinned by growth in digital subscriptions and digital advertising revenues, which, supported by the impact of cover price increases, more than offset continuing industry-wide declines in print volumes and print advertising.”
In the past 12 months subscriptions to The Times and The Sunday Times passed half a million, reaching 502,000 in July 2018. Digital subscribers account for 51% of the subscriber base and an additional 3.8 million people have registered to access a limited amount of Times and Sunday Times articles without subscribing.
Diversification is also evident, with recent launches including luxury property portal Mansion Global and holiday service Times Expert Traveller.
Meanwhile, Digiday reports that The Sun has grown its loyalty programme ‘Sun Savers’ to 800,000 members, allowing it to use this first-party data on its most loyal audience to inform other parts of the business, such as branded content deals, affiliate and in-app ad revenue.