Mark Sweeney of The Guardian in London reports that the parent of The Financial Times newsspaper has seen a drop in revenue for the first nine months of the year.
Sweeney writes, “Revenue at FT Publishing fell 8% at a headline level; 14% when stripping out the effects of currency exchange rates.
“Pearson said the Financial Times ‘continued to face a weak market for financial and corporate advertising in the third quarter, but it is benefiting from its long-term strategy of earning premium revenues from users for valued content in print and online’.
“FT.com now has a paying base of 121,000 subscribers — up 22% on the same period last year.
“At the Economist Group, in which Pearson owns a 50% stake, advertising ‘remains weak but subscription and content revenues will continue to grow’.”
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