Subscription-first strategy paying off
CEO Nick Hugh reveals most staff will return to full-time office working
The Telegraph could generate most of its revenue from subscriptions this year, according to chief executive Nick Hugh, who spoke to Press Gazette about the group’s 2020 financial results.
And he said that while online subscriptions growth is helping to secure the future of the 165-year-old title, print will remain an essential part of the mix for the long-term.
New figures show Telegraph Media Group, which publishes the Daily Telegraph, Sunday Telegraph and Telegraph.co.uk, reported turnover of £235.2m for 2020, down 12% on the previous year. Hugh says the decline is due to the pandemic advertising downturn, felt across the industry.
Telegraph hits record 603,000 subscribers as profits surge despite pandemic
Telegraph Media Group accelerated its transformation to a subscription-led digital business
27 April 2021 • 8:06am
Telegraph Media Group has reached a record 603,000 paying subscribers and enjoyed a 76pc jump in operating profits before exceptional costs, the company said on Tuesday.
Digital subscription growth is continuing to perform strongly, driven by strong interest in politics, coronavirus coverage, the Royal family, lifestyle and financial news, according to a trading update from the company that publishes
The Daily Telegraph,
Telegraph.co.uk.
The milestone of 600,000 paying subscribers was passed in March 2021, with the latest audited figure reaching 603,000 across print and digital as of the end of that month, as certified by PWC.
Meanwhile PA Media Group last month repaid the £1.35m it received between April and December last year.
HMRC did not initially name any companies claiming furlough cash – covering 80% of a worker’s salary if they are put out of work, sometimes to be topped up by their employer – because of taxpayer confidentiality.
It has been able to do so since December because of a Treasury direction made under the Coronavirus Act 2020 when the scheme was extended.
In December and January the Guardian was the only national newspaper publisher to still be claiming furlough cash – somewhere between £50,000 and £100,000 each month.
It has now revealed it decided to return all the cash after revenues for the 2020/21 financial year remained “largely flat” on a better-than-expected £225m (£223.5m in 2019/20).
December 3, 2020
The New York Times, Washington Post and Wall Street Journal lead the way with 6.7m, 3m and 2.5m digital-only subscriptions respectively.
Since Press Gazette’s first 100k Club report was published in December, we have discovered increases of 20% or more across five publishers – Telegraph Media Group, Bloomberg Media, Insider Inc, National Geographic and a financial news division of Dow Jones – over varying periods.
We have also added four new entrants to the league table: newsletter platform Substack, local US news publisher Lee Enterprises, Canada’s Globe and Mail, and Investor’s Business Daily, which is due to become part of News Corp later this year.