The Sun slashes losses as The Times treads water
The Sun slashed its pre-tax loss as an increase in cover price helped to offset falling newspaper sales, it has been revealed.
Separate accounts filed for The Times also show its finances have remained broadly the same during its latest financial year while TalkTV continued to make a huge loss.
The two newspaper groups and now-online TV channel all form part of the wider News UK group which is owned by Rupert Murdoch.
The Sun suffers digital decline
The Sun, which publishes its accounts under News Group Newspapers to Companies House, slashed its pre-tax loss from £65.8m to £18m in the year to 30 June, 2024.
Over the same period, its turnover fell from £305.2m to £296.3m.
In the year, The Sun’s UK online digital audience fell from 23.8m to 23.4m.
The newspaper said the fall in its turnover was “driven by structural declines in the print market and the volatility of social platforms’ approaches towards news content, which negatively impacted both print and digital advertising revenues”.
The Sun added, however, that circulation revenue “benefitted from a cover price increase during the year, which helped offset the volume declines”.
The Times adds subscribers
The Times, which posts its accounts via Times Media, reported a turnover of £383.4m for the year, down from the £385.7m it posted in the prior 12 months.
Its pre-tax profit rose slightly from £60.9m to £61m over the same period.
The Times’ digital paid subscriptions totalled 594,000 in the year – a rise of 29,000 – representing 84 per cent of its overall 705,000 subscribers.
Times Radio had a weekly audience of 478,000, the publisher added.
TalkTV continues to make huge loss
TalkTV, which publishes its accounts via News UK Broadcasting, posted a pre-tax loss of £50.3m for the year, down from a loss of £53.7m it lost in the prior 12 months.
Over the same period, its turnover increased from £5.6m to £6.6m.
TalkTV launched in April 2022 around the flagship show, Piers Morgan Uncensored.
However, in February 2024 it was announced that Piers Morgan’s show would leave TalkTV and move to YouTube.
A month later, it was confirmed that TalkTV’s linear TV channel would close that summer and it would move online. The closure was then moved to 1 May.