Financial Times returns to profit despite print circulation cut
The Financial Times returned to profit in 2022 despite a drop in print circulation as the City newspaper affectionately known as the ‘pink’un’ focused its efforts on driving up digital subscriptions.
Paying print readership fell 16% to 135,000, the FT said, but digital subscribers rose 13% as pre-tax profits climbed to £6.8 million, up from a pre-tax loss of £3.2 million the year before.
Revenues went up 14% to £422.5 million, led by a 24% jump in North America sales to £92.1 million, while advertising sales rose 7.9% to £149.7 million.
The results stand in contrast to newspapers without a paywall such as the Guardian, which posted a pre-tax loss of £47.5 million in the year to April amid falling turnover in the UK and Europe.
“Paid-for subscriber levels continue to ensure the FT.com platform is a robust business model, while advertising revenues remain strong,” the Financial Times said.
The FT said its ethnicity pay gap had jumped by around a half to 14.2% after an increase of senior ethnic minority employees quitting the company. “We still have work to do in relation to race,” the firm said.
The newspaper, run by CEO John Ridding who is understood to be paid £1.8 million, said it had considered whether to maintain a print paper, which has shrunk in size to 24 pages, in a number of different territories.
In an apparent policy U-turn, the Nikkei-owned business said it cut ties with Accenture, its technology provider, in a bid to slash costs and avoid being dependent on a single provider. The newspaper previously described its relationship with Xoomworks, an Accenture subsidiary which set up its 75-strong tech operations in Bulgaria, as “an amazing partner” with which it had built “an enormously trusting partnership” and had contributed “significant savings” from its capital expenses.
Overall headcount at the 135-year-old business was up 8% to 1500, but administrative staffing numbers were cut by more than a third to 197.
