Categories: OLD Media Moves

FT now gets more revenue from digital than print

The Financial Times now receives more revenue from digital subscribers than print subscribers, reports Roy Greenslade of The Guardian.

Greenslade writes, “It means that it can claim to be the first mainstream UK newspaper to be able to describe itself as a truly ‘digital content business.’

“The paper had previously reported that it earned more revenue from content than advertising. Content now accounts for 60% of the group’s revenues. So the paywall is clearly paying off.

“Its total paid circulation, combining print and digital, stands at 843,000, up 75,000 (about 13%) year on year. Three quarters of those are digital-only subscribers.

“The news comes as the paper today (Thursday) celebrates the first anniversary of its takeover by the Japanese media company Nikkei.

“When I interviewed its chairman, Tsuneo Kita, 12 months ago he said there was no possibility of his interfering in the FT’s newsroom affairs. Has he honoured his pledge?

“John Ridding, the FT chief executive, said firmly: ‘He has been true to his word. Our confidence in Nikkei has been fully vindicated.'”

Read more here.

Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.