Read all about it: The Times posts its first annual profit in 13 years
Times Newspapers (TNL) yesterday posted a £1.7m operating profit for the year ending 30 June 2014, the first time it has made a profit since 2001.
The publisher of the Times and Sunday Times, part of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp, last year recorded a loss of nearly £6m. Five years ago, in the year before it launched its paywall, there was a more than £70m loss. Both titles also reported increases in their total sales, combining audited print circulation and self-reported digital subscription numbers.
TNL said that total paid sales in October for the Times was 545,000 and the Sunday Times 958,000. Digital membership accounted for 291,000 (54 per cent) of the Times’ total and 338,000 (35 per cent) of the Sunday Times. Across both titles there has been a 10 per cent growth in membership to 390,000, as at the end of October, comprising 170,000 members taking TNL’s digital-only product, up 12 per cent year-on-year, and 220,000 taking the print and digital product, up nine per cent.
Times editor John Witherow said: “We have invested a huge amount of time and energy into putting the Times on a sustainable footing, which is the best way to ensure we can continue to produce world-class journalism.”