FT's circulation, advertising down

Pearson PLC, the parent of the Financial Times, reported its first half financial results Monday and noted that the business newspaper saw a drop in advertising revenue and circulation.

Aaron Patrick of The Wall Street Journal writes, “But the result highlighted that the FT Publishing division, which includes the Financial Times, has been unable to escape the problems affecting newspapers around the developed world.

“Weaker advertising helped drive down sales at the unit 6% to £176 million from the year-earlier period. That contributed to a 53% fall in operating profit to £14 million — a sign of how a newspaper’s profits can be quickly wiped out by even a small drop in ad revenue because of the cost of maintaining a large staff of journalists.

“Pearson Chief Executive Marjorie Scardino said finance and recruiting ads were sharply down. Newspaper circulation often rises during a crisis but the Financial Times gave away fewer free copies in London’s financial district, Mrs. Scardino said, contributing to a 6% decline in world-wide daily circulation to 421,429. In the U.K., its home market, 24% of the FT’s circulation was given away or sold at a big discount in May, according to the U.K.’s Audit Bureau of Circulations Ltd.

“‘We’re all about who is reading it, not how many people read it,’ Mrs. Scardino said at a news briefing in London.”

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