FT’s digital subs pass print on global basis

The Financial Times‘s results for the first half of 2012 show that more people than ever  are paying for its content, with digital subscriptions exceeding daily print circulation for the first time.

The FT’s digital readership continues to grow strongly, with FT.com  subscriptions up 31 percent year on year to over 300,000 and registered users  increasing 29 percent to 4.8 million. Its global paid-for circulation increased to  almost 600,000 year on year, and corporate licenses grew nearly 40 percent to nearly  2,300.

Its average daily global audience grew to nearly 2.1 million, with the  number of people who read the FT on more than one channel rising 27 percent. It achieved this growth while maintaining a robust print circulation business with  growing revenues.

FT CEO John Ridding said: “The FT’s successful financial performance  underlines our ability to adapt to a rapidly changing environment, as well as  our investment in new products and services for an increasingly multi-channel  audience. Our growth in this tough climate reflects the measures we took early  on, especially to build our content revenues and to drive digital and mobile  delivery.”

Mobile continues to boost FT’s digital audience, generating 25 percent of traffic to  FT.com and driving 15 percent of new subscriptions. The FT web app now has more than 2.7 million  users since launching little more than a year ago.

Read the full Pearson results announcement here.